Harry Potter and the Sororamor Charm
by Briana Marie
Summary: Everything Harry knows changes when Severus Snape shows up on his doorstep. With two unlikely allies, Harry searches for Horcruxes, not knowing that Voldemort has discovered a spell that no one's supposed to remember. A spell that can change the world.
1. Chapter 1: An Unlikely Visitor

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: This is a sequel to Growing Up Flower Twins, you could read it without having read that story, but you would probably get a little confused, plus if you read this first it will totally spoil the surprise in Growing Up Flower Twins, so I suggest you read that first. If you absolutely refuse to read it, just know that this story is being written with the assumption that you have read GUFT so everything won't be made clear. With that being said, welcome and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 1: An Unlikely Visitor

It had been a strange couple of weeks for Harry. Of course with everything that had happened, one wouldn't be surprised that things were strange for Harry. After all, his mentor had died, he had learned that there was a very real chance that he would be able to defeat Voldemort and he had the beginnings of a plan for doing so, and he was going to be set to start that journey in little more than a month's time. Yet none of those reasons were why Harry thought things had been strange. What was strange was that he was getting along with his aunt.

At first he hadn't really noticed. She had just started doing small things. When the Dursleys picked him up from King Cross Station she had actually smiled at him. In the weeks following, she had occasionally asked him how he was doing. They were little things that Harry didn't even pay any attention to.

Then his Uncle Vernon had gone away on a business trip, and Dudley had been spending a lot of time away from the house out with his girlfriend (Harry had almost died when he heard that someone was dating his whale of a cousin). Because of this, Harry and Petunia had been home alone a lot, and they had started having actual real conversations.

Not REAL real conversations. He didn't talk about what had happened at school. He didn't talk about Voldemort or anything in his wizarding world life. But they talked about light stuff. What Harry had done that day, what Petunia needed to buy at the market, the news. It was strange and finally Harry couldn't take it anymore.

"Aunt Petunia, why have you started being so nice to me?"

Petunia's back was to Harry, but he could see that she flinched. After a few moments, she brought the teapot over and poured some tea into Harry's glass.

"I am so sorry that you have to ask that questions Harry. No one should ever have to ask a family member a question like that. I have been so unfair to you for the last 15 years, Harry, and you've deserved better."

Harry was shocked. His aunt was apologizing to him. He had learned to stop thinking that one day his aunt and uncle might love him a long time ago, but he supposed somewhere deep down he had always hoped it would happen. To hear his aunt say that what she had done to him was wrong, it was shocking.

"But why? Why now?" Harry asked, when he finally regained his voice.

"Don't you remember what Dumbledore said to us before he left with you?" Aunt Petunia asked.

At the mention of Dumbledore's name, Harry flinched involuntarily. It still hurt to think of the man, to realize that he was never going to see him again. But he stopped and thought and was able to vaguely recall Dumbledore chastising the Dursleys before he took him that night almost a year ago.

Harry nodded and said, "So much has happened since then, I'd forgotten."

Petunia shook her head, "Well, I haven't. I thought about what he said every day that you were away at school. I thought about writing to you, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It hurt to hear those words, but everything he said was true. I promised I would take care of you, and I didn't. And I'm sorry."

Once again Harry was stunned. He couldn't believe that his aunt had taken offense at what a wizard said. She thought they were all freaks. And, Harry thought with a small smile, Dumbledore had been the biggest freak of them all.

Harry wanted to say that she wasn't forgiven. Wanted to say that you couldn't just forgive years of abuse and just hug and make up, but the fact was, he already had forgiven her. Since he had been home it was like she was a different person, a better person, and he found that for the first time he felt like he had a family, and he just couldn't not be happy about that.

"I can't say that I'll ever forget everything that you and Uncle Vernon and Dudley have done to me, but I can say that I forgive you Aunt Petunia. All I ever wanted was for you to love me, and I'm finally starting to feel like you do."

She looked like she was going to say something, but she opened and closed her mouth and then nodded.

After a while she finally said, "So since we're sharing, are you going to tell me why you've been so sad all summer?"

Harry looked at her. He didn't even know where to begin. The fate of the wizarding world rested on his shoulders and he had to destroy four, possibly five, artifacts that would probably destroy him before he was able to destroy them. Dumbledore had been seriously injured destroying one and he was a hundred times more powerful than Harry.

Dumbledore.

Harry looked at his aunt. He supposed that he could tell her that part of why he had been so miserable this summer.

"Professor Dumbledore was murdered," Harry said.

Petunia looked at him for a moment before collapsing into a seat.

"Was it Voldemort?" Petunia whispered, and once again, just as a couple of years before, Harry was reminded of the fact that Petunia was his mother's sister and she had to have known about Voldemort during the first war.

"No, it wasn't Voldemort," Harry said, hatred building up inside of him as he thought of who it actually was.

"Well who was it then?" Petunia asked.

Harry was about to spit out the hated name when he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Petunia placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and told him she'd be right back. He smiled at the sign of affection.

He couldn't believe that this was the same Aunt he had hated for so many years.

* * *

Petunia felt different. She couldn't figure out why she felt different, but she did. Ever since Dumbledore had shown up in her house the year before, she had felt like there was something she couldn't remember, like it was just out of her reach, and she couldn't quite get to it. And she kept thinking back on the way she had treated Harry and it literally made her sick to her stomach.

He was such a good kid, and she couldn't understand why she had never seen it before.

She had also found herself thinking about Lily a lot. She remembered when they were younger, before Lily had gotten her Hogwarts letter, they were very close. They were best friends. She couldn't even really remember why she had started hating Lily so much, she just knew that for the past however many years, she had told everyone that she didn't have a sister.

It was strange, but sometimes Petunia felt like she was two different people and she couldn't figure out which one was the real Petunia.

And it had all started when she had seen Dumbledore. She had never seen the man before, even though they had corresponded, yet when she saw him, she knew who he was. It was as if she had met him before, and knew him, yet she knew that she didn't.

It was all very strange and complicated and the only thing that kept Petunia from feeling like she was going to explode from the confusion was Harry. He calmed her in a way that no one else could. Except Lily. She remembered when they were five or six, Lily was the only person who could bring her out of a temper tantrum, and now Harry seemed to have the same effect on her.

He had told her that he felt like she loved him, and she had wanted to say that she did. She really did love him, but she couldn't say it. She knew that after the way she had treated him for so many years it would sound cheap and she wanted to say it when the time was right, when he needed it, when he would know she was telling the truth.

And now he was telling her that Dumbledore was dead. She felt like the wind was knocked out of her. How could he be dead? He was Dumbledore. The greatest wizard who had ever lived. The only wizard that Voldemort feared . . . and there she went again. How did she know these things? Where did these thoughts come from? She felt like she was losing herself again, or finding herself, she couldn't quite figure out which.

Who could have killed Dumbledore? Harry was about to tell her when there was a knock on the door. She looked at Harry, who she cared for so deeply. She cared for him as if he were her own son now, a feeling that had seemed to have sprung up over night. She could see the anger in his eyes as he thought of Dumbledore's murderer, and she placed a hand on his shoulder hoping that she could calm him a little. He smiled up at her and she walked out of the kitchen, wondering who could be at the door.

When she opened the door, she saw a sallow-faced man, with long greasy hair and a great hooked nose. He was wearing robes, and there was a wand in his hand. She looked him over, knowing that she knew him, and yet not being able to figure out how, and then she looked into his eyes.

They were dark, black really. And they were pained. Yet she remembered. She had stared into those eyes a million times. She had seen those eyes in pain, in happiness, in tears, and in love. Oh she had seen the love in those eyes. And as she stared into those eyes, she remembered everything.

At first she didn't even realize she had remembered, or maybe she didn't realize she had ever forgotten.

"Hello Severus," she said with a smile.

The eyes of the man in front of her went wide, unable to retain the blank look that had previously been on his face.

And then, with no warning, Petunia hit the floor in a dead faint.

* * *

Harry heard the thump from the kitchen and hurried to the front door to find out what had happened.

What he saw was Snape, the man he hated more than anyone else on the planet, standing over his unconscious Aunt holding a wand.

Forgetting his wand entirely, Harry launched himself at the man.

* * *

**A/N**: Well? Good first chapter? Do I have your attention? I hope you like it! 


	2. Chapter 2: A Life Remembered

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

I'm glad that people seem to be interested in this story...I hope that I can finish it before Deathly Hallows comes out, but I don't think it's going to happen. There's just not enough time. But I'll have fun with it anyway. :)

**James-Padfoot**: Your comment makes me wonder if you've read Growing Up Flower Twins, because there is definitely more to Petunia than meets the eye. :) I hope you like this chapter.

**Becca**: I was so surprised that you weren't my first review! But you were there quite soon after it, and I love your analysis of Petunia coming back from the dead, because that is how it feels for me. And sorry about the cliffhanger . . . you may not like the end of this chapter either. :-p

**storylover1992**: I'm glad you liked the first chapter and GUFT. I hope you like this one, too. :)

**Ecstace**: I didn't think the last line was all that funny, but I'm glad you did. I hope you like this chapter, too. I'm glad I'm writing again, too. :)

**LilyJames addict**: Okay, here you go. :)

**Tina**: Yeah, sorry about not updating GUFT for so long, I promise that I won't do that with this story. Well, unless something happens to my computer, which was one of the reasons GUFT got put on hold for so long. Say a prayer to the computer gods to keep my laptop safe.

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: I'm actually really glad you pointed out the Harry/Petunia thing as being rushed, because honestly, it was. But it was an intentional rushing. I wanted to get across that Petunia didn't just go from zero to sixty with how she remembered. When Lily died, the memories were there. And while she's had some brushes with the wizarding world, seeing Dumbledore kind of unlocked, if not her memories, at least her personality. I'm sure it's no wonder as to why Severus was the one to completely unlock everything. But anyway, the Petunia in GUFT was a kind, wonderful person who would of course want to be close to her nephew. As for Harry and how he was able to forgive, that's from GUFT too as I'm sure you'll remember how everyone reacted to Petunia. She's just a light that draws everyone to her, and Harry couldn't resist either. So that's why it was rushed. Harry was meeting the real Petunia. Wow that was a long response, but I want everyone to read it too, in case they have had the same question.

**Gossipchick**: I'm glad you liked my first story, and I actually think it's going to be interesting with some of my readers from that story coming to this one. Because pretty much everyone ships James/Lily, because it's so very canon and wonderful, yet despite the fact that certain ships are now canon, people don't necessarily like those. But there's the answer to one of your questions. My ships will be canon, as I love it so very much (and it happened to match what I wanted anyway. :) )

**drayvin04**: I'm glad you liked GUFT and I'm glad you're liking this so far. :)

**Kaedwen**: You asked me to carry on, and carry on I shall. Enjoy. :)

**Lily's Petal**: I'm glad you liked my first chapter of this and GUFT. I hope you like this one, too. :)

**Bahzad**: It's pronounced Sa-roar-a-more. And hopefully you recognize it from GUFT. If you don't, well, you may want to give the story another looksie . . . although it won't be long before you hear about it in this story.

I am so happy that you are all reading this and liking it. So many shiny reviews! It really does encourage me, and maybe, just maybe I will be able to finish this whole story in a month's time. (Oh my). Oh, and I encourage you to all read my response to SiriuslyLoopyLupin up there, because it may answer some questions that many of you may have. Now, enough of me going on and on. Enjoy the chapter. :)

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Chapter 2: A Life Remembered

If Harry had had a single rational thought in his head, he would have realized it was odd that Snape did not have a faster reaction time to being attacked. Normally, Snape would have had Harry immobilized before he had had a chance to move an inch. However, seeing as Harry was blinded by pure, unadulterated hate, he didn't notice at all that not only had Snape not reacted and blocked an attack, but that even after several punches, Snape still was not reacting.

In fact, Snape seemed barely aware that Harry was even there, he was just staring in shock at Aunt Petunia lying on the ground. After a few moments though, all of these facts registered to Harry and he backed away slowly and picked his wand up from the floor. He kept it trained on Snape the entire time, even as he gently shook his Aunt to see if she was alive.

To Harry's relief, she was, and she was slowly coming to.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Harry. "Harry, what happened?" she asked, rubbing her head.

Harry was about to tell her that she had to go upstairs immediately because she was in danger when she looked up at Snape. Rather than recoiling in horror as Harry thought any sane person should do, regardless of if they knew exactly how evil he was, Petunia looked at him with a look that Harry could not quite interpret, but that he found deeply disturbing.

"Severus? What are you doing here? What's going on? I remember . . . everything, yet I don't really . . . it's like I've awoken from a dream."

Harry looked from his Aunt to his former professor and back again, all the while keeping his wand on Snape.

"What the HELL is going on?" he said, not quite knowing who he was addressing, yet wanting an answer from anyone and everyone.

"Harry, there's no need to keep your wand trained on him like that. He's not going to hurt us," Petunia said, talking to him the way a parent might if she was scolding her child.

Wondering whether or not his Aunt had suffered some kind of brain damage when she hit her head, Harry said, "Are you mad, Aunt Petunia? Do you even know who this is. He's a Death Eater."

"I know that, Harry. I can't really explain everything right now, but I know that he's a Death Eater, but he's not. He's a spy . . ."

Harry looked at his Aunt as if she had grown a second head. How in the world did she know Snape? How in the hell did she know that he had pretended to be a spy. What was going on and why were his two separate lives suddenly colliding?

"What? How? Why? . . ." Harry tried to start a line of questioning, but his mind was so full of important inquiries that he couldn't really keep track and instead he just stood with his mouth flapping, unable to complete any coherent thought.

He still hadn't lowered his wand, but it was really like Snape wasn't even there. He wasn't saying anything and Harry wasn't even looking at him anymore. He was just staring at his Aunt as if he had never seen her before. It was true that over the past few weeks it had been like she was a completely different person, but now, he felt like he didn't even know who she was, and he was afraid. Afraid that his life was about to change . . . again.

"Harry, please. Just lower your wand, for me?" Aunt Petunia said, pleadingly. "Really. Just think rationally. You know how the blood protection works. Dumbledore told you. You're safe as long as you live here. If Severus meant you any harm, he would not be able to stand here right now."

At the mention of Dumbledore, Harry lost it all over again. "Severus? SEVERUS? How can you call him that?!?! How do you even know him?!"

"Harry, please calm down," Aunt Petunia pleaded once more.

"He killed Dumbledore. HE KILLED HIM!"

For a moment, it felt as if someone had placed a freezing charm on the room. Aunt Petunia halted exactly where she was, and her face went pale. Slowly, she turned and faced Snape.

Snape had finally stopped staring at Aunt Petunia after Harry's outburst, looking down at the floor in shame, to Harry's mind-boggling amazement. He watched with mingled fascination and horror as his Aunt approached Snape and placed a hand on his face. He wanted to move toward her, to protect her from this cold-blooded killer, yet it was like he was glued to the floor. She forced him to look at her and she gazed into his eyes.

Harry felt exactly the same way he had six years ago when Hagrid had stood in front of him and told him that his parents were wizards and so was he. He had had many life-changing moments since then, but none as big as that first one, where he had learned that his life was nothing like he thought it was. He felt as if very soon, he would be learning that once again, his life had been filled with lies.

Slowly, Aunt Petunia backed away from Snape. Once again there was an emotion that Harry could not place gleaming in her eyes, however, he could certainly recognize the tears.

"It's true?" his Aunt whispered in disbelief. "How could you? How COULD you?"

"Petunia, please. Let me explain," Snape said, taking a step toward Harry's Aunt.

Within a moment, Harry had stepped in between the villain and his Aunt, his wand raised. Even the shock of hearing actual tenderness in Snape's voice had not dulled Harry's senses so much that he would let this man approach is Aunt.

Yet, at the same time, what Petunia said about the blood protection had finally penetrated Harry's head, and he was anxious to find out why Snape was there, if it wasn't, in fact, to kill him.

Harry flicked his wand toward the sitting room, motioning for Snape to walk into it. "There's going to be quite a bit of explaining going on, but right now, I want you to close the door and go take a seat in there. And I'd thank you to leave your wand on the table right there."

Harry grinned inwardly at how composed he was staying. He felt as if Dumbledore would have been proud of him.

Snape grimaced, but looked like he was about to agree. Then he stopped and looked at Harry. "I have to do one thing first, Potter."

Before Harry could respond, or even react to block any curses that may have been about to come out of Snape's wand, the sour man in front of him had conjured another wand. He tentatively held it out to Petunia and said, "I believe this is yours."

Harry sat down heavily on the stairs behind him as he felt his legs give way, and his world come crashing down around him.

* * *

An hour later Harry was staring at the two people in front of him as if he had never seen them before.

"You're a Squib?" Harry asked for at least the fifteenth time.

Once again, Aunt Petunia nodded.

"And all this time I've been told that my mother was muggleborn, because that is what everyone believed, because my mum created a spell that altered how everyone perceived the world?"

Aunt Petunia nodded.

"Everyone except you?" Harry said, looking at Snape, if possible with even more loathing.

Snape sneered and said, "Yes, Potter, for the last time, everything we are telling you is true. I know it's hard to get through that thick skull of yours, but your Aunt Petunia is a squib."

Aunt Petunia swatted Snape on the arm and said, "Don't talk to him like that."

Harry's head fell into his hands. He had never been so confused in his life.

"You two were involved?" Harry asked, dreading the answer.

He looked up and saw that the two were trying very hard to avoid each other's eyes. Finally Aunt Petunia spoke up. "We were very much in love."

For a moment, Harry thought that he would actually vomit right then and there. Even when his Aunt had been the horrible person she had been all of his life (something that apparently was a horrible result of the spell and which he was sure his mother cringed over if she was watching over him) he would never have imagined she could have been involved with someone more horrible than Uncle Vernon . . . but apparently she had been.

As Harry continued to glare at Snape, Petunia asked. "Why do you hate him so, Harry?"

Harry actually laughed out loud, trying to decided how to answer. Finally he said, "Besides the fact that he killed Dumbledore? He's been absolutely horrible to me and every single person close to me ever since the first moment he laid eyes on me. He is a miserable human being who revels in making the lives of everyone else around him miserable."

Aunt Petunia looked at Snape and Harry nearly fell off his chair when he too looked at the man. He was showing actual remorse. Harry shook his head, knowing that it had to be some kind of trick of the light.

"I was under the influence of a spell that was designed to protect me, Severus? What's your excuse for treating Lily's son that way? And don't try to tell me it's because he's James' son, too. Your hatred of James could never outweigh how much you cared for Lily."

Harry's head hurt. It hurt really bad.

"Why aren't you asking me why I killed Dumbledore?" Snape asked, rather than answering Aunt Petunia's question.

Placing her hand on top of Snape's (which made Harry have to choke back vomit once more) she said, "Because I've already figured out why you did. At least I think I have."

"WHAT?" Harry yelled, jumping to his feet. "I know why he did it, too. Because he's an evil son-of-a . . ."

"HARRY!" Petunia said, shocking Harry into silence. "You are blinded from your hatred for this man. Hatred that I am quite sure is warranted, and I do want to hear about everything that Severus has put you through, and I fully intend to make him pay for those things in some way or another, but it is hatred that is not allowing you to see one fact in front of you, and is not allowing you to listen to the things that I wish to tell you."

Harry sat down, glaring and said, "What fact could possibly tell me that Snape had some good reason for killing Dumbledore?"

"The fact that he is sitting in this living room right now," Petunia said. "If he meant you harm, he could not be here."

Mumbling to himself, "He didn't try to hurt me last year either, said I belonged to his precious Dark Lord."

His aunt kneeled down in front of him and took his hands in hers. "Harry, I know that besides these last few weeks, I have never given you any reason to trust me. But I am asking you now, as your Aunt, as your mother's sister and best friend, to give me a chance to discover exactly what is going on, and to give Severus a chance to explain himself."

Her eyes were different. He hadn't noticed over the past few weeks, but he did now as she was gazing at him. They were kind . . . honest, and he found that he couldn't really help but trust her. It was odd, but it was as if she had cast some sort of spell over him. What he didn't know, was that many people in the past had felt the same way about the woman, that even though she wasn't technically magical, she still had an ability to render people spellbound.

"Fine," Harry said, grudgingly.

"Thank you," Aunt Petunia said, squeezing Harry's hands before standing to face both men in the room. "Now, Harry, first let me tell you why I know Snape could not have killed Dumbledore for Voldemort . . ."

"You said his name," Harry said with awe.

"I've said it before in front of you," Aunt Petunia pointed out.

"But that's before . . . before you knew it was something to fear."

"Fear of a name . . ." Aunt Petunia started.

"Only increases Fear of the thing itself," Harry finished smiling. "You DID know Dumbledore."

Aunt Petunia returned the smile, "Yes, I did. He was possibly the most wonderfully kind man I've ever met in my life. Patient. Understanding. And able to make one believe that they could achieve anything they put their mind to. I knew him. And I loved him very much, and believe me, once I've had a chance to process the fact that he is gone, I will need my time to grieve, but now is not the time."

Harry nodded and motioned for his Aunt to continue.

"Yes, well, I know Severus. I know him better than probably anyone else in this world. I can see that his years as a spy has torn him down. The Severus I once loved seems to be gone forever, but I can see that he does still exist. A small part anyway. I can see it when I look into his eyes. And I know that Dumbledore gave him everything. He gave him his life back when he had lost it the first time. And the only way Severus would kill Dumbledore would be if Dumbledore himself had ordered him to do it."

Harry and Snape both gaped at her in shock. Harry because he couldn't understand how she could possibly deduce that Dumbledore wanted to be murdered. Snape because he couldn't figure out how exactly Petunia had figured out the truth.

"How did you know?" Snape asked, staring up at Petunia.

"It's the only explanation. I know that no matter how bad your life has been, how miserable you may have been, all alone all these years, you would never go back to serving him. I saw how broken you were after you killed your father . . . and Dumbledore was the father you never had. You loved him just as much as I did, as Lily did, as everyone did. I can't imagine why he would order you to do it, but that's the only way you would have done it. Because you swore you would always follow Dumbledore's orders, no matter what."

Harry couldn't take it anymore, he stood up screaming. "He didn't love Dumbledore! He hated him! I was there when he killed him. I was THERE! There was nothing but hate in his eyes. Dumbledore was pleading for his life, and Snape killed him."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Potter," Snape sneered. "But you are right about one thing. I did hate Dumbledore. In that moment, I hated him. I hated him for caring more about my position as a spy than about my actual feelings. When I killed Dumbledore, I killed whatever was left of my soul. But I did it, for him, because that's what he was pleading for. He was pleading for me to kill him, so that I could still continue to help you."

The malice in Snape's voice was tangible. Harry was shocked. He didn't really believe Snape, and yet, if it was true . . . Harry couldn't really blame Snape for hating him. Yet, it didn't necessarily add up. There had to have been another way to protect Snape's role as a spy without killing Dumbledore. Malfoy wasn't going to do it. Maybe he would have helped if Snape had tried to overthrow the Death Eaters up there. There had to have been another way.

But maybe there wasn't.

"Dumbledore was a brilliant man," Harry said, deciding that he would honor Dumbledore's memory and see what he could find out. "He was, but he had one major flaw. He trusted too much. I still think he trusted you too much. But for a moment, let's pretend I believe you. What are you doing here? Won't Voldemort wonder why you're here? Unless you're here on his orders, in which case, you're a liar."

To Harry's surprise, Snape actually smiled. Well it was a sneer like smile, but a smile nonetheless. "That is the question you should have asked first. I am here, because I have finally succeeded in a task Dumbledore set me many years ago, and now I am here to see it the rest of the way through. I found out where two of The Dark Lord's Horcruxes are, and he will never give me any more information than that, thus I no longer need to pretend to serve him, and now I will do everything in my power to help you defeat him."

At this Aunt Petunia gasped, "You're free, Severus?"

A genuine smile broke across Snape's face, which Harry found frightening, but Aunt Petunia seemed to fine endearing as she smiled even wider. "Not quite. I won't really be free until The Dark Lord is dead, and really, as soon as he realizes I've deserted, he'll send Death Eaters to try to kill me, but that doesn't matter."

"How does that not matter?" Harry asked.

"Because I'll be with you, and anyone who's with you is in danger of being killed," Snape said. Harry glared at the hurtful, yet truthful, jibe.

"What makes you think I want you along?" Harry asked. Against his will, he was beginning to believe Snape, but that didn't mean he didn't still hate the guy.

Before Snape could answer, Petunia spoke up. "He's going, and I'm coming with."

Both Snape and Harry jumped up, preparing to protest. But all objections were halted when the front door opened, and all three turned to see Vernon Dursley standing in the entrance of the sitting room, with his mouth hanging open.

"What in the world is going on?" he finally managed to ask.

* * *

**A/N**: I know, I know. Another sort-of cliff hanger. I just can't help it. I love them. :) Anyway. I hope you guys are liking it so far. This chapter was very difficult to write because I needed Harry to hear Snape out, but still make it quite clear that he hates the man, and doesn't necessarily believe him. So, I hope I did okay with that. Next chapter will be up soon, promise. :) 


	3. Chapter 3: Rejoining the Freaks

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Yay, quick updates. Before I get to the review responses I wanted to address something really quick. Despite the fact that Snape is good in this story (as far as you know so far anyway :) ) I don't necessarily believe that he is good, yet I don't necessarily believe that he's bad. On the one hand, I trust Dumbledore and at one point in HBP Harry notes that he looks like he wants to say something more about Snape, and then he doesn't. I think he was about to say the real reason he trusts Snape, and I want to believe it was a good reason, because, come on, he's Dumbledore. He couldn't make that big of a mistake. But on the other end, and this is the part that's relevant to my story, he's the reason James and Lily are dead. When I read that little revelation in HBP, my love of Snape died. That's the reason it took me so long to finish GUFT. It's hard to continue writing a character that you know doesn't exist. :( And because that little revelation destroys my version of Snape, we're pretending it never happened. You know I am a slave to canon, but I'm choosing to ignore that part of canon for the sake of this story. Because the Snape that I created wouldn't have done that. So if you're wondering when Harry's going to flip out on Snape for killing his parents, or when Petunia's going to find out and flip out on him, it's not going to happen. Just thought I'd let you know.

**Rebecca Lynn**: I was just teasing about you not being the first reviewer. :-p I'm sure you'll be first from now on. I'm glad you're excited so far. Oh, and about Harry's head hurting, no it wasn't scar related. His head just hurt because of all the new information.

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: I'm glad you like my explanation of Snape and Dumbledore's death, just make sure you read what I said up there, too. :) And old Petunia comes back nice and strong in this chapter, too. Oh and as for being my beta, I had betas in my last story, and I always had technology problems with sending chapters which would make my updates take even longer, so now I just beta myself. I know I make mistakes now and again, but I was an English major and eventually plan on teaching English, so I think I can pretty much handle it. If I change my mind, I'll let you know.

**Gossipchick**: Was this a quick enough update for you? I hope you like it!

**Storylover1992**: Yeah, I'm super excited about developing the relationship between Harry and Petunia, although, I'm still not sure on how much I'm actually going to have them together in this fic. I haven't yet decided whether she's going to stick with him or if they're going to split up. I guess I'll see which way things go.

**Bahzad**: I'm glad people are buying the explanation I'm giving. It's the standard argument that the Snape-lovers out there give, and as I said up top, I'm not sure whether or not I even buy it. But it works for now. And I'm glad you remember the charm. :)

**Ecstace**: Ah yes, I suppose that is rather funny, and very Harry. I'm glad you liked it and I hope you like this chapter, too.

* * *

Chapter 3: Rejoining the Freaks

"Vernon," Petunia said, standing up and moving toward her husband. She had been sitting rather close to Severus and she could see by the look on Vernon's face that he did not like that at all.

"What is this freak doing in our home, Petunia? Has he come to take the boy away?"

Petunia felt a pang of anger as Vernon referred to Severus as a freak, and Harry as the boy. And then she felt bad for feeling angry, because, after all, for years she had agreed with everything Vernon said. She had loved him for a long time. She still did love him.

At least she thought she did.

She had met Vernon before the spell, and she had cared very deeply for him . . . but she had left him to be with Severus. Because as much as she loved Vernon, Severus was her match. She only agreed to marry him after Petunia had altered her personality with a spell.

He had been so horrible to Harry. Even now Petunia could see the look of contempt in Harry's eyes as he stared at his uncle. But he was her husband. That meant something. Even if she wasn't the woman that Vernon married any longer, she was the woman he first met, and he had lover her even then, if not necessarily knowing the whole truth.

She moved to grab Vernon's hands, knowing that they had a long conversation in front of them, but she had forgotten that her hands were not empty.

"What are you doing with one of those?" Vernon asked, pointing at the wand that Petunia still had in her hands, backing away slowly.

Petunia sighed and asked, "Vernon, can you remember how we first met?"

Still staring at the wand, Vernon said, distracted, "Yes of course. You lived next door to me."

"Just me?" Petunia asked.

"Yes, you lived next door. I always thought it was strange that you had a two bedroom flat, but . . ." Vernon said, shaking his head as if trying to clear it.

Petunia knew that he was resisting the new memories. Or really the old memories. She imagined most people wouldn't really be affected by the spell breaking, and if they didn't want to remember, they wouldn't. And of course, Vernon would resist anything connected with magic.

"I can tell you remember Vernon. Think. I wasn't living there alone. I lived with Lily. You must remember. I lived with her up until she married James. You met him. You thought he was wearing a dress the first time you met him . . ."

"It was one of those robes that the freaks wear. He told me it was for firefighting . . ." Vernon's face was becoming more and more confused.

"You have two sets of memories Vernon. The new ones are the real ones," Petunia said, trying to grab Vernon's hands again so that she might comfort him.

He pulled his hands away and said, "I proposed to you. You said no. You broke so many dates with me and I always thought you were seeing someone else. You were, weren't you?"

Petunia bit her lip and tried to control the tears that were threatening to fall. She had never wanted to hurt Vernon. She had cared very deeply for him, but he wasn't Severus. She glanced back at the man, who was just sitting there, his face revealing nothing.

"You don't need to answer, Petunia. Your silence tells me everything. Just explain why I have two different memories, why you lied to me and said you hated your sister when you lived with her and why I only remembered that you didn't now. I know it has something to do with the boy's freaky world."

"Lily made a spell to protect me. Vernon, while I haven't been lying to you all of these years, because I myself didn't remember my past, I did lie to you in the beginning, the beginning you are just now remembering. I was a part of the wizarding world, not a full part as I am not really a witch, but my parents were magical and I have some abilities . . ."

Before Petunia could even finish, Vernon was backing away from her.

"You're a freak just like them."

"No, Vernon, please," Petunia said, unable to hold back the tears any longer.

Harry stood and placed a hand on Petunia's shoulder, trying his best to comfort her and glaring at his Uncle.

"Get out of my house. I never want to see you again," Vernon said.

Petunia just stared, not knowing what to say. This was her home. This was her husband. She had a son whom she loved more than anything. A son who she had raised to be a horrible person. She wanted to make up for so many mistakes, and yet she knew she couldn't stay. This wasn't her place anymore, and she knew in her heart that what she wanted was to help Harry. Yet, she wanted it to be her decision. Slowly the tears subsided as Petunia felt less sad and hurt, and more angry.

How dare he tell her to get out of her own house. How dare he turn on her, the woman he was supposed to love. A side-effect of the spell was that Petunia had become weak and accommodating, but that was not her true nature. Her true nature allowed her to stand up for herself when she was angry, and right now she was pissed.

"You know what Vernon, I am going to leave, but not because you are telling me to. I was trying to figure out the best way to tell you I was going to leave you and you've just made it easy on me. You're right that I was seeing someone else when I rejected your first proposal, but that was not the reason why I said no. I said no, because I couldn't see a real future with you. You, who are so close minded, you who hate anything that is different or interesting. You, who I knew would hate me if you ever knew that I was one of those abnormal people. I could never be myself around you, and that is why I said no. I am going to leave, and if it weren't for the fact that I am going into a world that is very dangerous right now, I would take Dudley with me. But for now, I will leave him, because I love him and want him to be safe. Tell him whatever you want, but know that one day I will be back for him, and there will be nothing you can do to keep me from taking my son and trying to undo the damage that we have done to him. Good bye Vernon," Petunia said, standing up and walking toward the door.

She glanced back and saw that Harry was staring at her with a mixture of shock and awe and that Severus had stood and had a small smirk on his face. Clearly he was pleased to see the old Petunia was back. Petunia smiled a bit as well, glad to be back.

"Harry, I assume you have all of your things packed and ready to go. Can you go upstairs and retrieve them," Petunia said.

Harry, who was indeed completely packed, having never really unpacked knowing that this would be his last trip to the Dursleys and that it would be a short one, ran upstairs to grab his trunk and Hedwig.

Severus walked over to Petunia and placed a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it away and glanced back at him. A look of hurt passed over his face, but he masked it immediately. For a moment she felt that he was trying to probe her mind, but she shot him a glare and the sensation passed.

She was almost as angry with Severus as she was with Vernon, and she would tell him why in her own time. She didn't appreciate him trying to pry it from her mind before she was ready to volunteer the information.

A few moments later, Harry was back down the stairs with his belongings weighing him down.

The three walked out the front door and Harry turned to Petunia and asked, "So where are we going?"

Severus began to speak up, having clearly come to take Harry to a specific place, but Petunia cut him off.

"Where did you intend to go once your birthday rolled around and you would no longer have the protection of this house?"

"To the Weasley's," Harry said. "Bill's getting married."

Petunia smiled and said, "Lovely. I met Bill a couple of times, it will be wonderful to see him again."

Once again Severus made to speak up and Petunia cut him off. "If it is okay with Harry, I assume you can come as well, Severus."

Harry grimaced and said, "I still don't know if I believe him, and I'd like him to tell his story to other members of the Order to see if they buy it. So yes, he may come. In fact, I insist."

"Well that's that," Petunia said, ignoring that fact that Severus was growing more and more agitated and not being consulted on the decisions. "I assume you could handle taking both Harry and I on a side-along apparition?"

"Of course," Severus said through gritted teeth, placing a hand on each of their shoulders.

Before they apparated away, Petunia could see a wide grin on Harry's face. Clearly, he liked the fact that his aunt could handle his hated professor so well. Petunia grinned. She liked that fact, too.

* * *

Betrayed. Voldemort could not believe that he had been betrayed . . . and by his most trusted Death Eater. The man who had killed Dumbledore, killed the man who had so vexed Voldemort for so many years, had turned on him.

Bellatrix had been the one to tell him, with too much glee, Voldemort thought, that Snape had disappeared and that he had been spotted in Surrey, dangerously close to where Potter lived. At first Voldemort brushed this aside, but when Snape failed to answer his calls, he knew that the man had deserted.

Of course, it didn't really matter to Voldemort whether he had one less Death Eater. Even if it was a very gifted and useful Death Eater like Snape. And after all, he wasn't so very useful anymore, having blown his cover in the Order, when he killed Dumbledore.

But that worried Voldemort, and Voldemort hated being worried. Why would Snape kill Dumbledore, if he was on the Order's side. And why would he desert Voldemort if he was on his side. There had always been something about Snape that both intrigued and worried Voldemort, and that was that Snape was a wonderful double agent, because he never really appeared to be on anyone's side but his own. Whichever side offered him the most at any given time was the side that Snape was on. So which side had something to offer Snape now. What did he hope to gain?

And why would he go to Potter?

Of course the Evans . . . no, Dursley now, woman lived there.

Voldemort paused in his thinking.

"Odd," he said aloud. "Bellatrix, come in here."

Bellatrix limped into the room, still suffering the pain her master had inflicted on her earlier. Voldemort had not been amused by her glee.

"Yes, my Lord?" she said, sinking into a low bow.

"What do you remember about Lily Evans' sister?"

"Annoying squib. Absolutely nothing extraordinary about her and yet she managed to latch herself onto first my loathsome cousin, who while as lowly as they come was still a Black, and therefore you would have thought he had higher standards . . ." Bellatrix trailed off before she could start in on her feelings about Petunia and Severus.

Bellatrix looked up at her master, confusion evident in her eyes.

"Yes, Bella, I am as flummoxed as you right now. I, too, remember all of these facts about Petunia Evans, as we knew her, and yet I know that just yesterday, I did not know these things. I also remember things about Lily Evans, and now know exactly why I did not wish to kill her that night I went to destroy Harry. If only I had remembered then, things would be very different right now," Voldemort said, feeling his anger rise, knowing that if he had followed his instincts and just captured Lily, he could have killed Harry, and he would have no one standing in his way.

"Master, do you have any idea what could be causing these new memories?"

"Not knew memories, Bella. Old ones. Forgotten ones. Clearly it is a spell, and I imagine it was Lily who performed it. Protection for her sister no doubt. After all, everyone knows of how powerful dear, sweet Lily's _love_ could be," Voldemort said, spitting out the hated word.

"But to change everyone's memories? You really believe a mudblood could do something like that?" Bellatrix asked.

Voldemort flicked his wand and Bellatrix fell to the floor, limbs flailing. A moment later, Voldemort lifted the spell. Her questions annoyed him, but not so much that he need cause her pain for too long.

"You get your memories confused Bella. She was no mudblood. In fact she came from a long line of wizards, and I'm sure you remember how very strange her rise into magic was," Voldemort's eyes glowed as he remembered how very much he wanted to understand the Evans' sisters power. A squib turned witch, and a squib with minimal magical abilities. But even more important than that at the moment was the spell.

"Bring me Wormtail," Voldemort said to a still quivering Bellatrix, who had managed to pull herself into a standing position.

"Wormtail?" Bellatrix asked with distaste, then realizing that it was very unwise to question her master again continued, "Or course, my Lord."

Voldemort smiled to himself as Bellatrix left the room. If anyone in his power would know something about this spell, it would be Wormtail. He had, after all, been the Evans' sisters' friend.

* * *

**A/N**: Nothing much to say here. Review? 


	4. Chapter 4: Reunions and Truths

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Hello again. This wasn't quite as quick of an update, but it was still fast. I am slowly realizing that the chances of me finishing this before DH comes out is pretty much nonexistant, but it is okay. I will still write MY version of things even if it becomes completely AU, which makes me sad, because as you all know, I am a slave to canon. But speaking of AU, one more little AU thing about this fic. Professor Zabini is mentioned in this chapter, and those of you who've read GUFT know that he was the potions professor in my story. I haven't decided yet if Slughorn is going to be in this fic, but I don't think he is actually necessary, so he probably will not be. But if he is, just pretend like you've been put under the Sororamor Charm and that you have two separate memories, one of a Professor Zabini and one of a Professor Slughorn. :) (Stupid HBP messing up my story!)

Anyway, on with the review responses.

**Drayvin04**: I'm glad you love this story, so I hurried up and updated. :)

**Rebecca Lynn**: I'm glad you were impressed with the quick update, this one wasn't quite as fast, but it is a bit longer, so that makes up for it. I know you hate Voldemort . . . we all do. But he must know what's going on. Necessary evils, you know. I hope you like this chapter.

**Gossipchick**: I'm glad my writing leaves you wanting to read more. I hope this chapter can tide you over.

**Ecstace**: Oh, I know! You have no idea how long I've been wanting to write the telling off of Vernon. It felt amazing and I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. And I like the description of "chilling" for the last part. I'm always nervous about writing Voldemort, because he's a tough character to pull off. I don't want him to be a caricature, because he is such a complex character . . . yes, evil, but there's more there. And there will be quite a bit of him in this story, so I'm glad that so far I'm pulling it off. :)

**Bahzad**: Well the story is named after the spell, so you know it's going to play a big role. :) I hope this update was quick enough for you.

**Lily's Petal**: Happy belated birthday. I'm glad I could give you that present. And I'm glad that my writing makes you hate Snape less. He's not quite the loveable Severus he was in GUFT, but I am going to work on redeeming him, because deep in my heart, I want to believe that he will be redeemed in Deathly Hallows as well. :)

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: I never thought about the fact that in the actual stories Snape wouldn't have known who the prophecy referred to. I've always held the assumption that he would have known that it at least COULD have referred to Lily and James' son. But if what you said was true, I could see him accidently causing Lily's death being the thing that made him switch sides. Because while we know he hated James, we really have never had any real indication of his feelings for Lily, just that he called her a mudblood that one time, and if you've read GUFT, you know my feelings on the fact that she seemed surprised by it, as if he had never called her one before. Interesting . . . I will have to think on that . . . for 21 days, because after that I'll actually have the book! Excited! Still, for the sake of my story . . . it wasn't him. :)

**storylover1992**: I'm glad you liked Snape trying to probe her mind. I was definitely going for him being way out of line there, and I'm glad that made him more believable. Yay. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter.

**Believeinmagic14**: I hope I didn't make you wait too long. Hope you like it. :)

**LilyJamesaddict**: Ha ha . . . that's really funny that you forgot this was a sequel. It would have been funnier if you didn't remember until after you sent me a nasty email saying that I was copying someone else's work or something. Hee. Anyway, you'll see Remus' reaction in this chapter . . . and his reaction to Petunia.

* * *

Chapter 4: Reunions and Truths

Harry was standing next to one of the people he hated more than anyone else in the world, besides Voldemort, of course, and possibly Wormtail and Bellatrix Lestrange, and maybe even the elder Malfoy. No, Harry definitely hated Snape more than the elder Malfoy . . . and really, Harry began to realize, he hated a lot of people.

But his point. He did have a point.

He was standing next to a man that he hated very much, and yet, he could feel no hate in his heart as he looked at the Burrow. It had always filled him with such a sense of happiness. The family he had always wanted was there, his best friend was there, but for the first time he looked at the Burrow and he knew that the girl he had fallen for was there. The girl that he could not be with.

Quite suddenly the happiness ebbed just a bit. Yet, he was still happy that he was going to get to see her. And also a bit nervous about his Aunt meeting her.

While they had not specifically talked about her, Harry trying to steer clear of anything related to the wizarding world during their conversations, he had briefly mentioned a girlfriend. He was beginning to learn that his Aunt was very observant and he knew it wouldn't be long before she figured out there was something between him and Ginny.

Harry shook his head, knowing that he could not think that way. He and Ginny could not be together, not as long as Voldemort lived.

He looked to his left and was amused to see a beaming Aunt Petunia, who was gazing at the Burrow as if it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen. That made him realize exactly how different this new Aunt Petunia was, as the old one would have found it dirty and unruly.

Gazing to his right, he was even more amused by the look on Snape's face. He looked absolutely horrified, and frankly Harry couldn't blame him. He was about to walk into a house full of people who believed him a murderer.

Harry motioned for both of them to follow him and he made his way up to the Burrow's front door. He knocked and waited for the answer.

"Who's there?" Mrs. Weasley asked cautiously.

"It's Harry."

Forgetting all Ministry safety regulations, Mrs. Weasley flung the door open and threw her arms around Harry.

"Oh Harry, we weren't expecting you for a few more days. Ron said you'd be coming on your birthday . . ." Mrs. Weasley trailed off, taking in the sight of Aunt Petunia and then Snape.

She pushed Harry protectively behind her and raised her wand. "Why are these two horrible people with you Harry? What is going on?"

Harry was absolutely shocked to see Mrs. Weasley raising her wand in such a manner. In all the years that he had known her, he had never once seen her raise her wand with the intent to hex, but he could see in her eyes that that was exactly what she intended to do. Strangely enough, most of her anger seemed to be directed at his Aunt Petunia, rather than Snape.

"It's quite a long story, Mrs. Weasley, well really, two long stories, one of which I'm still not sure that I believe. But I can assure you that my Aunt is not here to hurt anyone, least of all me, and Snape . . . well, I think the Order should probably be assembled sometime soon so Snape might be able to tell his story. See if anyone believes him," Harry said, placing his hand on Mrs. Weasley's wand arm to gently lower it. She looked at him and gave him another hug.

"In any case, it is very good to see you, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said.

Aunt Petunia stepped up and said, "I know this will only serve to confuse you more, and we will get into that whole story later, but I wanted to properly introduce myself and also ask whether or not Bill is here, because I would really love to see him again."

Mrs. Weasley looked like Aunt Petunia had just slapped her, "Again? Why would you have ever met my son . . . wait."

Harry wondered if it was going to be like this every time Aunt Petunia re-met someone from her forgotten past. If so, he knew she was going to get really tired of explaining everything.

"I never met you, but Bill talked about you in passing. You and Lily were very close. You danced with Bill at her wedding . . . he told me that. Why am I only remembering this now?"

"Maybe you should try to call the Order together as soon as possible, so that I don't have to tell the story over and over again," Petunia said, smiling.

Mrs. Weasley nodded, still shaking her head a little, as if trying to clear it, when Ron came bounding down the stairs.

"Harry, mate. I thought I heard you . . . what the bloody hell is HE doing here?" Ron said, his wand already in his hand and leveled on Snape.

With that, Harry couldn't take it any longer. He broke into peals of laughter. Mrs. Weasley reprimanded Ron on his swearing and Ron just continued to glare at the former professor.

Snape looked at Harry as if he had gone insane, which Harry thought he just might have, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Perhaps you should have Arthur or Alastor or whomever is in charge of the Order now call a meeting immediately, or I am afraid I will be annoyed to death by wands being waved ineffectually in my face every five minutes," Snape sneered, causing Ron to turn an amusing shade of red.

"Yes, yes, a meeting. Lots to discuss," Mrs. Weasley said, turning and calling out to her husband, while motioning the unlikely trio into the house.

* * *

Harry seriously hoped that everything was so chaotic because of the arrival of two very surprising people, and not because the Order had fallen apart when Dumbledore had died. Everyone was running around like mad men and women trying to organize a meeting, and it worried Harry deeply. Even with the Ministry now in the know and sort of on his side, Harry knew that the Order was the best support he had in his quest to kill Voldemort.

Looking around for an adult he could ask who would actually answer his questions, his eyes landed on Bill. He cringed a little as he took in the eldest Weasley child. While not as bad as they were the night he had been attacked, his scars were still quite horrific. It pained Harry to see him that way, and from the look on his Aunt's face, Harry could tell it pained her as well.

"Bill? My God, Bill, what happened?" Aunt Petunia said, rushing to him.

Bill looked at her for a moment and then said, "Forgive me, but have we met?"

"Only once or twice, and it was a very long time ago, but Lily spoke very highly of you," Aunt Petunia said with a small smile.

Harry watched as an odd stream of emotions seemed to overtake Bill. At first was the confusion that Harry had now become accustomed to seeing, but then, it was a look of utter sadness, yet also . . . love.

"Lily," he said softly to himself. Then he looked up at Petunia and pulled her into a hug, "Petunia."

Harry felt as if he was intruding on a very private moment. He hadn't even known that Bill knew his mother, but clearly based on his reaction to seeing her sister, he had known her well . . . and cared deeply.

His aunt and Bill broke apart and before Bill could began asking the inevitable questions, Harry cut in. "You knew my mother?"

Bill looked at Harry and sighed.

"Yes, I knew her quite well. Your father, too. I've always wanted to tell you about them. I know you have so few connections to them, but it was hard. It was so hard for me to talk about them, especially Lily and I was just never able to find a way to bring them up. Now that your Aunt is back, I know that she will be able to tell you so much more about Lily than I ever could," Bill said.

"Back? So you're not confused?" Aunt Petunia asked.

"A bit, but at the same time, no. Lily always told me that she would find a way to protect you. And she was brilliant. I'm sure there was some sort of spell that has now been broken, and I assume that's what all of this running around is about. Letting the Order know that you're back," Bill said.

"Well, yes, there is me and also, him," Aunt Petunia said, motioning to Snape who was sitting in the corner being watched very closely by Ron.

"But . . . okay, now I'm confused," Bill said.

"I'll let my Aunt explain why Snape's here, but first I wanted to ask you a couple questions that I'm not sure anyone will answer," Harry said, cutting his Aunt off, which earned him a firm glare.

Bill looked around to check that his mother was otherwise occupied and said, "Go ahead, Harry. I'll answer what I can."

"What's happened to the Order? Why is there all this chaos to call a meeting?"

"Well, there hasn't really been an Order since Dumbledore died," Bill said. Harry was about to raise a protest when Bill held up his hand. "I mean there is still an Order, but it's in a bit of shambles right now. You know after we learned that Grimmauld Place belonged to you, we moved back in as headquarters, well when Dumbledore died the secret died with him. We couldn't tell any knew members where our Headquarters was. Plus, with Snape a known deserter . . . or maybe . . . we thought . . . anyway, it wasn't safe to have that be Headquarters anymore. With us being unable to choose a new Headquarters, things have been a bit hectic. Alastor and Remus have sort of taken over as co-heads of the Order, but both are difficult to contact at the moment."

Harry nodded. Without a headquarters or a set leader, he could see why the Order had dissolved into the mess he was seeing now. He thanked Bill and left him to catch up with his Aunt.

He found Ron still staring intently at their former professor.

"What's going on, Harry? Why is he here?" Ron asked.

Harry was impressed by his friend's restraint. Harry had told him that he needed to find out some things before he would be able to talk, and Ron had waved Harry off to do so without a single question. However, now that Harry was back, he could see the questions would be coming.

"He says he's on our side," Harry said, his own disbelief evident in his voice.

"Right. On our side. Killing Dumbledore helped us out so much," Ron said, looking at Snape with disbelief. "He really expects us to buy that?"

Harry shrugged, "Dunno. But I do know that he couldn't have come to my house if he wanted to hurt me, so I figure let him tell his story to the Order and see if they believe him."

"You sound like Hermione," Ron said.

"Is she here?" Harry asked, wanting very much to get her opinion on the subject.

Ron nodded, "Arrived yesterday to help with the wedding preparations. I think she's out with Ginny and Fleur. Bridesmaids stuff."

"Hermione's a bridesmaid?" Harry asked in disbelief, ignoring the way his heart lept a little in his chest at the mention of Ginny.

"No, no, but Ginny is. And she drags Hermione along for moral support. I think Ginny's likely to kill Fleur before the wedding. I mean, Ginny's come around just like Mum has . . . fact that Fleur still wants to marry Bill even though . . . well, you know, Ginny says it shows she has a heart and isn't all bad. Still finds her annoying though," Ron said, all the while still watching Snape as if he might jump up and run at any moment.

Harry turned as he heard the back door fly open with a bang and saw the three subjects of their conversation. He noticed that Ginny looked quite angry, which made her all the more beautiful.

He shook his head, knowing that he could no longer have those thoughts about her. He also knew how well he had been able to handle those thoughts the last time he was not allowed to have them.

"Honestly, can I bloody well help it that I have red hair. I'm sorry that pink is her favorite color and that it is all my fault that she can't have bridesmaids in pink . . ." Ginny's tirade to Hermione came to a halt as she noticed Harry sitting on the staircase watching her.

"Harry!" Hermione yelled running and pulling him into a hug. "You aren't supposed to be here yet. Ron and I were going to come and get you on your birthday. What happened?"

Ginny had held Harry's gaze the whole time he was enveloped in Hermione's hug. She looked as if she wanted to talk to him, hear why he was there early, just be near him, but instead she gave him a small smile and walked into the other room.

He felt his heart break a little, but he knew she was just doing what he had asked. He couldn't be with her . . . not while Voldemort was alive and could use her against him.

Harry was about to launch into his explanation of Snape showing up on his doorstep and his Aunt actually not being the horrible woman she had been for so many years, but before he could even begin, he was cut off by the Burrow door being thrown open once more.

Remus was standing in the doorway, out of breath and sweating. He looked around the room and asked, "Where is she? Where is Petunia?"

* * *

Petunia snapped her head toward the door, hearing her name, and was immediately on her feet. She practically flew across the room and threw herself at the man that she had not seen in so many years. Bill had just finished filling her in on what had happened to all of his sister's friends . . . and she now knew that Remus was the only one left.

As he held her, she felt it all overtake her. Her sister and James were dead. Alice and Frank were in St. Mungo's. Sirius was dead as well. Something she had already known, but had only now connected in her two memories. Amelia was dead as well . . . just recently. And Peter, oh Petunia's blood boiled at the thought of Peter. But Remus was still alive. Remus was still here. Remus had been all alone, having lost everyone he had ever called a friend.

She began weeping in his arms, for him and for herself. It was as if Petunia had been given her whole life back, only to have it snatched away once more.

"What broke the spell, Petunia? You remembered earlier today. I know exactly when, because in that instant, I remembered, too. It was so strange. One moment I only knew you as Harry's horrible Aunt, and then the next . . . you were Petunia," Remus said, trying to hold in his own tears.

"Severus broke it," Petunia said.

"Severus?" Remus said, spitting out the name. "That murderous traitor . . . that horrible, despicable . . ."

"Do you really believe it Remus? Really? Besides me, you knew him better than anyone, do you really believe him capable . . ." Petunia started.

"He's not the man you knew, Petunia. Even when we thought he was on our side . . . he's not the same . . ."

"I believe him when he tells me he is on our side. He has a lot to answer for, but I believe in him. I always have. He has the right to tell his story, and as I understand it, you are the one who can arrange for that to happen," Petunia cut Remus off.

Remus sighed and said, "I suppose we can hear him out. I will contact Alastor and we will contact the members of the Order. We can have the meeting here, and we can determine whether or not Snape is on our side and you and I can explain exactly why you are here, and how."

"Why I'm here . . . Remus, how did you know I was here . . . I mean, at the Weasleys?" Petunia asked suddenly.

Wrinkling his forehead in thought Remus said, "You know, I don't know. I just . . . did. I remembered who you were and the spell we did, and then, I just knew where you were. At first you were at home and then I knew you were at the Burrow. That's . . . odd."

Petunia nodded, thinking it was very odd, indeed, but knowing they had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Everything needed to be cleared up so that a wedding could take place and Harry could be on his way.

* * *

The Order had grown. Harry supposed he shouldn't be surprised. After the wizarding world had accepted that Voldemort was back, Dumbledore had probably been bombarded with people wanting to join and help.

To accommodate all of the members of the Order, which Remus had been able to round up almost immediately, Mrs. Weasley magically expanded the living room.

Snape was being kept in another room, watched by Mr. Weasley, so that he would not raise too many questions before the meeting could actually begin. Aunt Petunia was sitting quietly in a corner, unnoticed, talking to Remus.

His Aunt was dabbing at her eyes again and Harry was beginning to wonder exactly how close she had been to his godfather. He knew that's who they were talking about as he had heard them mention his name several times. He didn't want to upset his Aunt, or himself really, by talking too much about Sirius, but if she had known him well, he'd like to hear more about Sirius when he was younger. He decided to ask her about him sometime in the near future.

Hermione and Ron were huddled with Harry discussing what exactly was going to happen if the Order determined that Snape was actually on their side.

"If he's telling the truth, he can help us, Harry," Hermione said.

"Help us? Even if he is on our side, he's still a massive git. He hates Harry, why would he help him?" Ron said.

Harry was much more apt to agree with Ron, although he had learned by now that Hermione was often right . . . although he had not forgotten the fact that neither of them had believed him last year about Malfoy, and he had been right.

"What about your Aunt? Where does she fit into this?" Hermione asked, expertly ignoring Ron's comment, much to Ron's annoyance.

Harry shrugged, "I really don't know. At the very least, I want her to come to Godric's Hollow with us. I think she deserves to have a chance to say goodbye to my mum, too."

Ron looked about to change the subject back to Snape when Moody started gruffly calling for everyone to find a seat.

Aunt Petunia went up to the front of the room and Harry looked around seeing a couple of faces register recognition and then confusion. She told her story about how Lily created a spell that altered people's perception of the world without actually giving any information about the spell. People began murmuring to each other. Only a few people in the room had known Aunt Petunia before the spell and they seemed to be trying to figure out which of their memories were real.

After his Aunt finished telling her story, Harry stood up to join her at the front of the room. It had been decided that if Harry stood up there with Snape, the Order would be more likely to listen to what he had to say. Harry was not pleased with the arrangement, as he did not want anyone to think that he necessarily believed his story.

When Snape walked into the room, more than a few people reached for their wands, but Moody and Remus motioned for them to listen. Harry tried very hard to resist rolling his eyes as Snape told the same story he had told earlier that day. Once again, it wasn't that he for sure didn't believe Snape, it was just hard to believe that Dumbledore would find Snape to be more important than himself.

As he looked around the room he realized that most everyone else in the room was thinking the same thing, because there were a lot of disbelieving faces.

"We can't trust him. Dumbledore trusted him and now he's dead," someone called out from the back.

"He's been a spy for years. He is a skilled Occlumens. He could be lying right now and we'd have no way of knowing," Professor McGonagall added.

Harry was surprised by this as she had always seemed to trust Snape just as much as Dumbledore had.

"Veritaserum," Remus suggested. "We could give him Veritaserum to see if he's telling the truth."

"That won't work," Harry said suddenly. He was remembering what Dumbledore had told him about the antidote to Veritaserum. "Snape probably expected us to use Veritaserum and could have taken some of the antidote already."

Snape looked annoyed by this statement and was about to speak up when Aunt Petunia said, "I have some Veritaserum that the antidote won't work on."

Everyone turned to look at her in shock.

"Petunia, my dear, no one can make Veritaserum that strong. It would be lethal," Professor McGonagall said.

Aunt Petunia shook her head and said, "No, you just have to increase the number of Jobberknoll feathers by two percent and then add some shavings from a bezoar to counteract the added poisonous properties."

Harry stared at his Aunt in shock and then realized that everyone else was staring at her as well. He had no idea if what she said was true, but she sure did sound like she knew what she was talking about. From the way Snape was staring at her, it looked like he thought she could be right as well.

"You never told me that you had discovered a way to make Veritaserum stronger," Snape said accusingly.

"Professor Zabini asked me not to tell anyone. He said Veritaserum was controlled quite stringently by the Ministry and there could be dangerous repercussions if they found out about my discovery."

"This is all very interesting Petunia, but where exactly do you have the potion. You've been living as a muggle for years. I can't imagine you kept a bottle of Veritaserum in with your seasoning salts," Bill said.

Aunt Petunia raised an eyebrow and Bill just smirked back, "Lily collected all of my magic related things and stored them away for me, in case we ever lifted the spell."

"Well how do we get it, where is it?" Remus asked.

"Severus knows the spell to retrieve my things," Aunt Petunia said.

"How can we trust him to retrieve the potion and not something else?" Harry asked.

"The spell retrieves a trunk full of all of my magical things. He has to bring all of it or nothing, the only thing that could be called on its own was my wand, which he already retrieved for me," Aunt Petunia said. "Besides, he's telling the truth, so he should have no problem with taking the potion, right?"

Aunt Petunia gave Snape a very pointed glare, which he ignored, merely nodding and waving his wand, making a trunk appear.

After a few moments of rummaging in the trunk, Aunt Petunia pulled out a small bottle filled with a clear liquid.

"It is very strong, so one drop should be more than enough," Aunt Petunia said, handing the bottle over to Moody.

"Alright then Severus, go ahead and open up," Moody said gruffly.

For a moment it looked like Snape was going to refuse, but he relented and opened his mouth, letting Moody drip a drop onto his tongue.

After a moment, Moody began the questioning, "Did you kill Dumbledore?"

In a flat, expressionless tone that Harry recognized as the same tone Barty Crouch Jr. had spoken in when he had taken Veritaserum, Snape answered, "Yes, I did."

"Did you do it on Voldemort's orders?"

"No, Draco was the one ordered to kill Dumbledore," Snape said.

"Were you ordered to help Malfoy?"

"Not ordered, but asked."

"Voldemort asked you to do something?" Moody asked incredulously.

"No, not Voldemort. He did not want anyone to help Draco. He was actually quite angry that I disobeyed orders, but because Dumbledore was dead, which is what he had always wanted, he forgave me. I was asked by Narcissa to help Draco to keep him safe. I made an Unbreakable Vow to help him . . . and to perform his task if he failed."

"So you promised to kill Dumbledore before he even asked you to?"

"Yes," Snape said, and despite the fact that the potion did not allow any emotion to register in his voice, Harry could see a feeling of shame very apparent on his face.

Moody was about to continue his line of questioning when Petunia spoke up, "Why?"

Snape looked like he was trying very hard not to answer, but the potion was too strong to resist. "I didn't have much of a choice. Bellatrix was already very suspicious of me . . . suspicious where the Dark Lord was not, and when Narcissa asked me to make the Vow, I couldn't refuse. Plus, I didn't want to see Draco hurt. I care about the boy, and I knew he was on a fatal mission. The Dark Lord wanted to punish Lucius for his failure. I made the Vow hoping that Dumbledore would be able to find some way around it. I never expected that I would actually have to kill Dumbledore . . . and if it came to that I was determined to refuse to do so, and just let the Vow take my life."

Everyone in the room was supremely shocked. If the potion was truly working, then Snape had to be telling the truth. He was willing to give up his own life in order to save Dumbledore's.

"Then why did you do it?" Harry asked, unable to keep his emotions in check. "If you had decided that you would rather die than kill Dumbledore, why do it?"

"Because, as I already told you, it was what Dumbledore wanted. He said that I was too important and couldn't die. But more than that, the circumstances that we were put in gave me no real choice. If I wouldn't have killed Dumbledore right then, the Vow would have taken my life, and then the others would have killed Dumbledore anyway, and possibly Draco for his failure. Killing Dumbledore saved both Draco's and my life, which is what Dumbledore wanted."

"So you didn't hate Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"I loved Dumbledore. I hate that I killed him. I will never be able to forgive myself. That is why I came to you. I cannot stand you, Potter, but if you are in fact the one person who can kill the Dark Lord, then I want to help you. It was Dumbledore's mission to see him destroyed, and as some sort of penance, I want to make sure his mission is realized."

"I think we've heard enough," Remus said quietly. "I don't think there is any doubt that Severus is on our side . . ."

"One more question," Harry said, interrupting Remus. "Where is Malfoy?"

At this, Severus looked down, "The Dark Lord was extremely angry when the others told him that Draco was not going to kill Dumbledore. I don't think I've ever seen him so angry. He had him under the Cruciatus Curse for more than ten minutes. It's been weeks, and he's still not recovered. I wanted to bring him with me, but he's in no state to travel. I'm afraid the Dark Lord will kill him soon."

Harry felt an odd feeling in his stomach. He had always thought he hated Malfoy, but when he had seen him on the roof, unable to kill Dumbledore . . . unwilling to, something had changed. He pitied him. He felt sorry for the boy who really couldn't help being who he was considering the people he was raised by. He certainly did not like him by any means, but he didn't hate him either. And he didn't wish him harm.

Harry was about to say that they would try to save him when Petunia placed a hand on Snape's arm and said quietly, "We'll get him back."

Snape nodded, not looking up at anyone.

"That is definitely enough now," Remus said. "I want to thank everyone for coming. Since we now know that Severus will not be a threat to security, we might be moving back to our old Headquarters, if we can figure out how to lift the Fidelius Charm that is on it right now, and implement a new one with a new Secret Keeper."

Everyone began to leave and Harry made his way toward Hermione and Ron again.

The first thing out of Hermione's mouth was, "I never in a million years thought I would say this, but poor Malfoy."

Ron, looking like it physically hurt him to do so, nodded in agreement.

Harry agreed, "No one deserves the Cruciatus Curse, and certainly not for that long."

"You want to help him, don't you, Harry?" Hermione asked, that knowing smile on her face.

Harry couldn't help but smile a little and say, "You know me. I have a 'saving people' thing."

Ron grimaced and sighed, "I suppose we can't leave him in You-Know-Who's clutches. Besides, it will probably really piss him off if we're the ones to save him."

Harry laughed and said, "Well, I suppose that's a bonus. So we'll set off for the Horcrux hunt and the Malfoy rescue mission after the wedding?"

Hermione and Ron nodded, though Ron looked a bit nervous. When Harry asked him what was wrong, Ron said, "Well, I haven't actually told Mum that I'm not going back to school. I think she might be a bit angry with me. You know, even with Fred and George doing as great as they are, she's still disappointed that they didn't finish school."

"Some things are more important than school, Ron. She'll understand that," Hermione said, earning looks of utter shock from Ron and Harry.

"We've really been a bad influence on her," Ron said to Harry.

"Truly," Harry said.

Hermione swatted them both on the back of the head and said, "Well we should probably figure out the best way to tell your Mum. Maybe we should wait until the Hogwarts letters get here. It might soften the blow when she learns you've been named Head Boy."

"Oh I have not. Just because you're going to be Head Girl does not mean I'll be Head Boy," Ron said, though Harry noticed he stood up a bit taller.

The three continued to discuss the best ways to get Mrs. Weasley in a good mood before telling her that Ron would not be finishing his education. So far the best ideas were that Ron was going to be Head Boy, that Percy was going to return to the family, and that Harry was going to marry Ginny and become an official part of the family.

Harry tried very, very hard not to think about that last suggestion.

* * *

**A/N**: So those of you who are very familiar with my writing and have read Perfect know that I am not a fan of stories that write Draco as sympathetic, unless they are done in a certain way. Well, as I introduced in this chapter, there will be a sympathetic Draco angle . . . but believe me, he will still be Draco. One of the things I loved about HBP is that JKR made Draco into a fully developed character who I could feel sympathetic toward. I think he's going to play an important role in the final book, and I think it will be for the good side. He's still a massive git though. :) Oh, and other stuff happened in this chapter, too . . . feel free to comment on said stuff in a review. :)


	5. Chapter 5: Closure

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Well, here is another chapter. Enjoy. :)

**Foxy Firebolt**: Hello. Welcome to my story. I don't know what you mean by Head Boy usually being Harry. I imagine you're talking about in fan fiction. However, I don't think Harry would be Head Boy just because he wasn't a prefect. I know that James was made Head Boy even though he wasn't a prefect, but I feel like that was a rare case. As for Harry and Hermione, sorry, but I follow canon, and there is absolutely no evidence in canon that suggests that they feel for each other anything other than a brother-sister bond, so they won't be getting together. Also, Petunia is technically already a part of the Order and Vernon is so out of the picture that no one need ever think about him again.

**Storylover1992**: Yeah, Petunia's love of potions is important and I just wanted to remind everyone of that. :) And I'm glad you liked Snape's answers, I put a lot of time into that part of the chapter.

**Drayvin04**: Actually Jo said somewhere, I think on her website, that when a Secret Keeper dies the Fidelius Charm stays in place just as it was, so with everyone who knew the secret still knowing, but no one else able to be told about it. You may be thinking about what happened with the Fidelius Charm in GUFT, but that was because Lily was rushed and so did not perform the charm perfectly. :)

**  
Ecstace**: I'm glad you feel like I tied up HBP loose ends. As I said before, that book kind of flushed a lot of my sequel ideas down the potty, so I'm glad I was able to work around most of the big things. And I know, poor Petunia. I'm also very excited to see what roll Draco plays in DH, because I know it's going to be something big. And I'm glad Harry/Ginny makes you squee . . . it makes me squee too. And I think you'll like this chapter. :)

**Rebecca Lynn**: No worries on the lateness, real life happens. :) Or reality life in your case. Hee hee. And I'm glad you're still skeptical of Snape. I feel that everyone always should be. ;)

**Bahzad**: I'm sure once the book comes out I will be very tempted to borrow from it. Because, I mean, one of the things about writing a book 7 is that we already kind of know what the plot is going to be. Harry looks for and destroys Horcruxes. I'll still have my own story lines with the potion and the Draco angle and whatnot, but once I read the book I may be like, "Hmm . . . well that's just a great place for a Horcrux to be hidden, isn't it?" :-p

**LilyJames addict**: I'm glad that was a great chapter for you rather than a blah one. I feel kind of blah about this one, but hopefully you'll like it. And I agree, Harry and Ginny should just be together. But alas, Harry is all noble and whatnot. :)

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: I think you're review may have been cut off, because all it said was Snape. Then again, sometimes all one needs to say is Snape. :)

**Believeinmagic14**: I'm glad you liked the new chapter and I'm glad you're interested in the Draco angle. It seems to be a hit.

**Lily's Petal**: Here is a quick update for you, as I think you just reviewed the last chapter a few hours ago. :)

And we continue . . .

* * *

Chapter 5: Closure

Despite everything that was going on in his life, Harry could not help but be excited about Fleur and Bill's wedding. He had never been to a wizarding wedding, or any wedding for that matter. He imagined that a muggle wedding would probably be boring, but that there would be some magic in a wizarding wedding, and even after six years in the wizarding world, it was still exciting to see new magic.

Even more entertaining than the wedding was sure to be was watching everyone prepare for the wedding. Charlie and Ron were going to be Bill's groomsmen, since George and Fred had said in no uncertain terms that they would rather eat a dozen Puking Pastilles then be forced to participate in "the circus" as they had started calling it.

Ron spent most of his time griping about how he had to walk down the aisle with his sister, while Ginny continued to rant about Fleur and how unbelievably controlling she was.

So far she had been doing a marvelous job of avoiding Harry, and he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He was feeling particularly mopey the morning of the wedding, and Aunt Petunia found him sitting in the kitchen watching everyone run around in utter chaos.

"You really like her, don't you?" she asked, taking the seat next to him.

He had been staring at Ginny who was yelling quite ferociously at her mother about not wanting to have flowers strung all throughout her hair. Gabrielle was standing quietly next to her, patiently letting her own mother string her hair. Mrs. Weasley looked like she wished she had a more timid daughter.

Harry thought about lying, but he knew that he would never be able to fool his Aunt anyway, so he just said, "Yeah, I do."

"She was the girlfriend you mentioned?"

Harry nodded, still watching Ginny who had finally ended her tirade and submitted to her mother. She glanced Harry's way and gave him a small smile.

"Yeah."

"Well judging from the way she steals glances at you whenever she gets a chance, I'd say that she wasn't the one who broke it off. So why'd you do it?" Aunt Petunia asked.

Harry finally tore his gaze away from Ginny and turned to face his Aunt. "I would never be able to go on if something happened to her because of me. If Voldemort found out about how much I care about her, he would most certainly try to use her against me."

Aunt Petunia smiled and said, "You are so like your mother, it's scary."

"You know, people have been telling me for years how much I remind them of my dad, that might be the first time someone has told me that I'm like my Mum," Harry said with a smile.

"I see a lot of James in you, but no, you are definitely your mother's son. But Harry, I don't want to see you make the same mistake she did. I understand that you don't want anything to happen to Ginny, just as Lily didn't want anything to happen to me. But sometimes you have to let the person you care about make the decision of whether or not they think you're worth the danger. I was weak, and I submitted to Lily. From what I've seen of Ginny, she is very far from weak, and she must care about you a great deal to go along with this."

"She understands that I have things I have to do, and that if I'm worried about her, I won't be as focused as I need to be . . ."

"She wants to keep you safe, just like you want to keep her safe."

Harry nodded. It was nice to be able to talk to someone about how he was feeling. He couldn't really talk to Ron who accepted that Harry had feelings for Ginny, but didn't necessarily want to hear about them. And Hermione, while being a great listener, was Ginny's best friend and would probably try to tell Harry that she could take care of herself and that there was no reason for them not to be together.

But Aunt Petunia listened and didn't judge. Sure she suggested that it was Ginny's decision as much as Harry's, but so far that hadn't posed a problem as Ginny had not tried to argue with him.

He wished that she would.

Harry shook his head, and Aunt Petunia placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Just because you're not together now doesn't mean you can't be together someday. Your Mum and Dad were crazy about each other for years before Lily finally wised up and said she'd be his girlfriend."

Whipping his head around, Harry looked at his Aunt incredulously, "Crazy about each other? I always thought Mum hated Dad, until he grew up a bit."

Aunt Petunia laughed and said, "Oh she would have everyone think that, but no, Lily never hated James. She had a crush on him from the very beginning, and while, for a couple years there she wasn't his biggest fan, I don't think she ever really stopped liking him. However, she had convinced herself that she couldn't like him, and so repeatedly told him no when he asked her out."

Harry felt like a weight had been lifted. Sure, Remus and Sirius had told him that his Mum didn't really hate his Dad, but they were much closer to his Dad, so how would they know. But Aunt Petunia was his Mum's sister. She would know how his Mum really felt.

Harry stood up and gave his Aunt a hug. It was still a little weird to hug her, but she hugged him back and he felt much better.

"Come on then, the guests are starting to arrive and I want you to have a good seat. Wizarding weddings are the most beautiful you could ever go to."

Harry smiled and followed his Aunt into the Weasley's backyard, which had been decorated beautifully for the occasion. They found Hermione and took their seats next to her.

Soon after, everyone else began settling in their seats and the music began. Harry turned and saw Charlie escorting Gabrielle down the aisle. A few moments later his breath caught in his throat as Ginny and Ron came walking down the aisle.

One of the things he adored about Ginny was the fact that she was a bit of a tomboy. She was always more interested in talking about Quidditch strategies with him than in talking about clothes and makeup with her girlfriends. However, because of this he had never really seen her dressed up, excluding the Yule Ball when he had only really had eyes for Cho. But now, seeing her in the pale gold dress, which really did accentuate all of her most beautiful features, with those ridiculous flowers in her hair . . . she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Right then and there he wanted to stand up and kiss her. Hold her. Just be with her. For a moment he thought he might do it. But his Aunt's hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality.

He looked at her and she had the most understanding look on her face. She knew exactly how he was feeling. She had felt the same way about someone before. At this thought, he felt a little disgusted as he realized the person she felt that way about was either his Uncle Vernon, or even worse, and more likely, Snape.

This horrible realization made him shudder a bit, but at least served to draw him away from his thoughts on Ginny.

And then Fleur came walking down the aisle and Ginny became a distant memory. Obviously, Harry had always found her to be quite beautiful, and while her Veela charm seemed to work it's magic on Ron more than on him, it wasn't as if he was immune, but now, she looked so breathtakingly beautiful that he would dare anyone, man or woman, to disagree.

He managed to pull his eyes away from her to glance back at Ginny for a moment, and he could tell even she agreed as for the first time he could see her looking at her soon to be sister in law with a smile, rather than a scowl. Then he looked at Bill, and he could not suppress his grin any longer. Bill looked absolutely gobsmacked. He was leaning on Charlie for support and he had the largest grin Harry had ever seen on his face. Glancing back at Fleur he saw that she looked just as happy.

Harry knew that these two were in as love as any couple could be.

Fleur reached the end of the aisle and she and Bill joined hands, and Harry knew that for the two of them it was as if no one else was there. They said their vows and the wizard officiating performed the binding spell, and not once did they take their eyes off of each other. Finally when they were pronounced man and wife they kissed and broke apart and only then seemed to realize that they had a very large audience.

Harry stood up and cheered with everyone else and handed Hermione his handkerchief as she was trying to hide the fact that she was crying. She took it begrudgingly and Harry smiled.

"Where is the reception going to be . . ." Harry started to ask when suddenly all the chairs disappeared and a band, bar, and buffet appeared around the edges of the Weasley's backyard and a dance floor appeared beneath his feet. Also sprinkled around the garden were tables and chairs. In a blink of an eye the backyard had been turned from a church into a reception hall. Magic was truly a wonderful thing.

"Come on, let's go offer our congratulations to the bride and groom," Aunt Petunia said, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling him through the crowd.

The entire wedding party was still standing all together, including Ginny, which made Harry reluctant to go offer his congratulations right then. He was also fairly certain that that was the exact reason why Aunt Petunia wanted to.

They made their way through the crowd, with Hermione right on their heels.

When they finally reached the couple, Aunt Petunia pulled Bill into a hug and congratulated him. Harry made his way up to Fleur who kissed him on both cheeks and said, "I am so 'appy you could be 'ere. Eet was a beautiful ceremony I theenk. Don't you agree?"

Harry nodded.

Then, to Harry's surprise, Fleur grabbed Ginny by the arm and pulled her over.

"And doesn't Ginny look beautiful. I theenk it was the right choice to dress her in gold. Eet 'ighlights 'er natural beauty. Don't you agree, 'Arry?" Fleur asked with a knowing grin as Ginny looked absolutely stunned and Harry tried very hard to hide his burning face.

His aunt nudged him and he finally answered quietly, "Yes, she looks beautiful."

He looked up and saw that Ginny was blushing and trying to hide her smile. She met his eye and for a moment looked as if she was going to move toward him, but then quickly excused herself and ran off.

Hermione saw this and finished up her conversation with Ron, giving him a quick peck on the cheek and telling him he looked quite dashing, before running after her.

Ron blushed a little and held his hand up to his cheek, then noticed Harry watching him and cleared his throat. Leaving his Aunt to talk to Bill and Fleur some more, Harry motioned for Ron to follow him to one of the tables.

When they had sat down, Harry asked, "Do you know what that was all about?"

Ron nodded and said, "Fleur found out about you and Ginny dating and she was a big fan. As much as she gets on Ginny's nerves, I don't think Ginny realizes how much Fleur actually likes her. And of course she likes you, so she likes the idea of the two of you together. She doesn't know why you two broke up and she thinks that she could get the two of you back together."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked, surprised that Ron could be that observant.

"Hermione told me," Ron said with a grin.

Harry laughed and then sighed. He knew that Ron didn't like to talk about him and Ginny, but he was now desperate for any and everyone's point of view on the situation.

"Look, I know she's your sister, but I need advice. What should I do? I can't stop thinking about her."

"I think you should just talk to her, mate. Clear everything up before we leave, otherwise you'll never be able to concentrate on what we have to do," Ron said.

Harry put his face down on the table and said, "I was afraid you'd say that."

Ron patted Harry on the back and said, "Why are you so afraid to talk to her?"

Lifting his head up slightly Harry said, "Part of me is afraid she'll cry and tell me not to leave her, and the other part's even more afraid that she won't."

"Uh . . . okay," Ron said, nodding with a very confused look on his face.

Harry laughed and let his head bang down back on the table. Ron patted him on the back and stood up, leaving him to stew in his own misery.

A few moments later the seat next to him was taken once more, and by the scent of flowers on the air, Harry knew it was Ginny. For a few moments they just sat next to each other in silence until finally Ginny took his hand into hers and pulled him out onto the dance floor.

They danced without speaking for a few moments before Ginny finally opened her mouth and said, "Staying away from you while you're living in my house has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

Harry held her a little tighter and said, "I know how you feel. Every time I see you I just want to grab you and hold you, and it hurt so much not to be able to."

Ginny buried her face in Harry's chest and he knew that she was crying. He held her and just let her cry and then pushed her a little away so he could look down into her eyes. She looked up at him and smiled.

"I'm not going to beg you to stay, Harry. I want to, so much, but I can't. I know why you have to go, and you wouldn't be you if you didn't. What I want more than anything is to go with you. I know Hermione and Ron are, and I feel like I should be there with you to . . . but I know I can't. You'd be too busy worrying about me to do what you have to do. But I just want you to know Harry that when you get back, I'll be waiting for you. I don't want you to worry about losing me to someone else, because there is no one else for me. You go save the wizarding world, and then you come back to me. Because if you don't, I will hurt you."

Harry grinned and pulled her close to him once more. She wanted him to stay, but she wasn't asking him to. That was exactly what he needed to hear. And she would wait for him . . . Harry paused in their dancing and looked down at her.

"Ginny, what I'm going to do . . . it's dangerous, and there's a chance I won't make it back . . ." Ginny opened her mouth to protest and Harry placed a finger on her lips. "We both know it's true, even if neither of us really wants to say it. But, believe me, I have every intention of living and coming back to you, but just in case I don't, I just want you to know how I feel about you."

Ginny's eyes widened and she looked at Harry, clearly knowing what he was going to say next, but not really believing it.

"I know it's early, and under normal circumstances I would never say this so soon, but I don't want to risk never having the chance to say it, so . . ."

A small white hand clapped across Harry's mouth before he could finish.

"Don't say it, Harry. Just know that I know, and that's good enough. And just so you know, I feel the same. But we can't say it now. We'll say it later, after you've killed Voldemort, when we can have a normal relationship. But not now," Ginny said. She removed her hand from Harry's mouth and he grinned.

"I was just going to say that you're one of the best Quidditch players I've ever known."

Ginny threw back her head and laughed and it felt as if all the tension just melted away. She pulled him into a hug and the two finished their dance.

Throughout the rest of the evening, Harry had a great time with Ginny. They continually came back to each other for dances, although Harry also danced with Fleur once, Hermione a few times, and a couple times with Aunt Petunia and Mrs. Weasley, who Harry had never seen so happy and tearful at the same time.

Overall, it was a wonderful evening and just what Harry needed before he set off on his journey. He, Ron, and Hermione had decided that they would leave the following week, the day Harry and Ron took their apparition test. And they had decided that they would wait until the day they left to tell Mrs. Weasley, so they could make a quick getaway if necessary.

* * *

Petunia was watching Hermione with growing amusement. She was pacing back and forth in the kitchen chewing on her bottom lip.

She appeared to be muttering to herself, yet she was speaking clearly enough so that anyone could hear her. Luckily Petunia was the only one in the kitchen at the moment.

"Oh, what if they don't pass? I mean, I'm sure Harry will pass. He Apparated Dumbledore back to Hogwarts after all . . . but that was such a traumatic experience, what if it has scarred him forever and now he'll never be able to Apparate again. And Ron, I mean, I know that he can do it if he really puts his mind to it, but the fact that he failed last time, and really just barely. That examiner was entirely too harsh, and Ron is so easily discouraged . . . oh, it will make searching for Horcruxes so much harder if we can't all Apparate . . ."

Hearing the direction Hermione's soliloquy was taking, Petunia jumped up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Hermione jumped and looked up at Petunia as if only just realizing she was there.

"Calm down, dear. They're both going to do fine."

"Have they come back yet," Ginny asked, bouncing into the kitchen from the backyard where she had been practicing her flying.

"Not yet," Hermione and Petunia said together.

"Well, they had better get here soon. I can't wait to see Mum's reaction to Ron telling her he's not going back to school," Ginny said, a wicked grin on her face.

Petunia laughed. Over the past week she had gotten to see a different Ginny and she could understand why Harry had fallen for her. It seemed that ever since she and Harry had talked at the wedding, she had relaxed a bit and just let herself be happy. She was an absolute joy to be around and enjoyed filling Petunia in on news in the world of Quidditch.

Harry had been shocked to find out that she was a fan, and that she was actually a fair flyer. He hadn't believed her at first and so she had challenged him to a Quidditch game. While she had been a bit rusty at first, she had found out that flying was just like riding a bike. You really never forgot how to do it.

Petunia was jolted out of her thoughts by the door slamming open. Harry and Ron had returned, and judging from the looks on their faces, they had passed.

Hermione ran at them and pulled them both into an awkward group hug.

"Oh, I knew you would both pass. I just knew it!"

Harry disentangled himself from Hermione and left her to give Ron a proper hug. Ginny stepped up and gave him a quick congratulatory squeeze.

"So we should probably go tell your Mum now," Harry said.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Hermione said, running out of the room and coming back with three envelopes. "Hogwarts letters came while you were out. There's this whole letter about how it's going to remain open and encouraging parents to send their children back as it's the safest place for them and that giving up our education is just letting Voldemort win, so on and etc. It's actually a very convincing letter. Professor McGonagall must have spent ages on it . . ."

Harry and Ron looked at Hermione pointedly and Hermione blushed a little.

"My point though, is that I opened all of them, and Ron, you and I were made Head Boy and Girl. We can give your Mum the news and then tell her we're leaving."

All three of them nodded, and then Ginny spoke up and pointed out what Petunia thought was rather obvious, but the three of them clearly had not noticed.

"Don't you think Mum will be _more_ upset if you tell her after she's learned that Ron was made Head Boy. I mean, if he isn't going back to school, then he's not going to be Head Boy."

Ron and Harry looked at her, and then at each other, and then at Hermione.

"Why didn't _you_ think of that?" Ron asked.

Hermione bit on her lower lip and said, "I think it will be okay. I think just knowing that you were chosen, even if you aren't going to be Head Boy will be enough to make her happy. Besides, no matter what, she's not really going to be okay with this, hopefully this will serve to soften the blow."

Ron nodded, and then, looking as if he was about to go into battle, he marched into the living room where his Mum was listening to the wireless and talking to Remus. Severus was sitting in the corner, reading a book with a scowl on his face.

Petunia shook her head at the man. Even though he was staying under the same roof as her, she had barely seen him over the last week. He avoided all contact with all people, and she was starting to worry that the Severus she had known was completely gone. She was glad that they would be leaving soon as hopefully that would mean he would be forced to talk to her.

"Uh . . . Mum, our Hogwarts letters came in the mail, and er . . ." Ron trailed off, clearly not wanting to have this conversation.

"Ron and I were made Head Boy and Girl," Hermione said brightly.

Mrs. Weasley shot up and pulled her son into a hug. She was beaming with pride and going on and on about having three head boys in the family.

Petunia wondered once again if this was the best plan, as clearly, she was going to be crushed when she found out that not only was her son not going to be head boy, but he was going on a life-threatening journey.

"Mum . . . Mum, listen!" Ron said, pulling himself out of his mother's embrace.

Mrs. Weasley looked startled by Ron's raised voice and Ron muttered an apology, but then, glancing at Hermione he seemed to gain courage.

"Listen Mum, I just wanted you to know that I was chosen, but . . . I'm not going to be Head Boy."

"What? I don't understand," Mrs. Weasley said.

Ron stood up a little taller and his voice gained a bit of authority. Hermione and Harry both stood at his side, lending him support.

"I know that you were really upset when Fred and George didn't finish school, and even though they are doing great now, I think maybe they should have finished school, because school is important. I don't want you to think that I don't think it is. But they were right to leave school when they did. Umbridge was horrible and they took a stand, and I know that for that, you are proud of them."

Mrs. Weasley didn't say anything, but nodded quietly. She looked as if she suspected where this was going, but wanted to hear her son out before she said anything.

Bolstered by his mother's attention, Ron continued, growing more confident with each word.

"They demonstrated that some things are more important than school. Like standing up for what you believe in, or sticking by a friend. Harry is my best friend, Mum. You know that. And he has things that he needs to do. Things that he can't do if he's at Hogwarts. And I can't let him do those things alone. Hermione and I, we need to be with him."

Aunt Petunia watched Mrs. Weasley closely. She was clearly a woman torn between wanting to protect her son from any harm, and wanting to embrace him and his very adult decision.

Finally she spoke.

"I am so . . . proud of you, Ron."

Ron did a bit of a double-take and stared at his mother. Clearly, of all the responses, that was not the one he had expected.

"I wish that I could tell all three of you that you were forbidden from going anywhere besides Hogwarts, but the fact is, you are adults. As much as I do not want to admit that my babies are adults, you are. And yes, Harry, Hermione, I think of you two as my babies just as much as Ron. Dumbledore and Sirius always tried to tell me that you deserved to be let in on things, Harry. That what went on affected you more than anyone. I still don't know exactly what they knew that I don't, but I know that I cannot stop you from doing what you must. And I don't want to know what it is. I'm sure it's dangerous and knowing will only make me worry more. So I know I cannot stop you. And I won't stop Ron or Hermione, because I know that having them with you only means that you are that much safer and I am proud that even if I forbid them, they would stay by your side. Because they are loyal. And as you said, Ron, there are some things more important than school."

The three teenagers stood absolutely dumbfounded before Mrs. Weasley. And Petunia saw that Ginny was standing a little behind them looking even more shocked.

Finally she spoke up and said, "So Mum, if I said I was going to go, you'd be okay with that, too?"

Harry looked like he was about to protest, but Mrs. Weasley beat him to it, "Absolutely not, young lady. You are still underage and I therefore still have full rights to keep you locked up in this house if I so choose."

"I wasn't going to go anyway," Ginny said cooly, "I just wanted to make sure that you were still Mum. And you are."

That broke the tension in the room, and everyone laughed.

"Well, Mum, I'm really glad that you're taking this so well. Shocked, and a little concerned for your sanity, but glad, and well . . . we're leaving today."

"What?" Mrs. Weasley shouted, standing up, tears shimmering in her eyes. "Why today? Where are you going?"

Harry reached out and took Mrs. Weasley's hand. "We'll be going to Hogwarts first. My aunt wants to say goodbye to Dumbledore and there are some things that we want to try to look up in the library before we go. Then we're going to Godric's Hollow, and then . . . well we don't really know. That's the unknown and dangerous part of our journey. Hopefully we'll find something to help us at Hogwarts. I'm sorry we didn't give you more time, but we were afraid you wouldn't take to the idea and we might have to just make a run for it."

Mrs. Weasley pulled Harry into a hug, and then Hermione, and then Ron. She continued to sob as the three retrieved their trunks, which they shrunk to fit in their traveling cloaks, and as she called Mr. Weasley to come home to say goodbye.

Petunia and Severus walked a little ways off as the three teens said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. Petunia noticed that Harry seemed to hold on to Ginny a bit longer than the rest of them and finally the three of them turned and walked toward the two adults waiting for them.

Severus was still wearing a scowl on his face as Harry approached and said, "Okay. Time to go."

"How long are we going to stay at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Not long, I hope. I want to see if we can find out anything about R.A.B. It's all we really need to know that we don't already," Harry said.

"What do you mean that we don't already know?" Ron asked.

Petunia was confused as well, but she noticed that Severus looked like he was actually fighting back a smile.

Harry turned to Severus and said, "You said you found out the location of two Horcruxes. That's why you were able to leave Voldemort. Just because I haven't asked you about it doesn't mean I didn't hear you say that. Well, there are six Horcruxes. The diary is destroyed. The ring is destroyed. We know where the snake is. So that means you have learned where Hufflepuff's cup and the sixth Horcrux is."

"You surprise me Potter. I didn't think your brain would be able to grasp all of that. But yes, I know the location of Hufflepuff's cup and the final Horcrux is Ravenclaw's broach. I know where that is as well," Severus sneered.

"So," Harry said, turning back to Ron and Hermione, "That leaves us not knowing whether or not the locket has been destroyed, and the only clue we have is R.A.B., so that's what we have to find out."

"Who is R.A.B.?" Petunia asked, only partly being able to follow the conversation since she had only been briefly filled in on the Horcruxes by Harry during the past week.

"I'll tell you when we get there. First, we need to go say goodbye to Dumbledore," Harry said, sadness evident on his face.

Petunia glanced over at Severus, and saw that he too was wearing a somber expression. She grabbed onto his arm, and braced herself for apparition.

After a moment all five disappeared, on their way to Hogwarts.

* * *

**A/N**: Blah. I'm not too thrilled about this chapter. I know that there was a bit of Harry/Ginny closure at the end of HBP, but I just feel that if the two had longer to think about it, there would be problems, and they would need real closure, so that's what the majority of this chapter focused on. Anyway, I think I'll probably be able to get two, maybe three more chapters out before the book comes out and then the hard part: continuing a story while trying my best not to plagiarize parts of Deathly Hallows. :)


	6. Chapter 6: New Leads

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Hello again! What a fabulous week it's been for Harry Potter. I saw Order of the Phoenix Tuesday at midnight and it was abso-friggin-lutely fabulous. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, I suggest you do. I believe it's the movie that stuck to the books the best and the one big change they made at the end was done so wonderfully and emotionally and powerfully well that I forgave them. There is one thing they left out in the beginning, which of course made me sad as my whole friggin' little fanfic world is based on it, but I understand that cuts need to be made and in movie form probably would have just confused the viewer. But enough about OOTP . . . on with MY story. :)

**Killtheold**: I'm pretty sure Harry and Ginny will end up together in the books, not so much cause I get that meant to be feeling from them as I think they both could fit with other people as well, but because Harry deserves to have a bit of normal happiness, and Ginny is great for him. :) And about Hogwarts knowing that they weren't going back, I think knowing where they are (possible with a simple tracking spell) and knowing if they were coming back or not (being able to read their minds) are two very different things. :)

**Drayvin04**: I'm glad you called me on Mrs. Weasley being calm, I was afraid that people would think her a bit OOC. That's why I added that part about Ginny, to kind of soften the blow. But my views on it were that no matter what Mrs. Weasley did she knew that they would leave, so she would rather give them her blessing and have them leave on good terms rather than start a fight and have them leave on bad . . . just in case anything happened to them, she would know that they left knowing they were loved. I hope that look into Mrs. Weasley's inner thoughts makes her actions a bit more believable. (And I love Snape too.)

**  
Rebecca Lynn**: I put it up that night because I was excited about the midnight showing:) And I feel sad about Harry and Ginny as well, but it's necessary for them to be apart, at least for my story. :) I think you'll like this chapter, too.

**Bahzad**: I think everyone likes the Harry/Ginny scenes. :) And I feel bad for Mrs. Weasley as well, but I think she knows that there's nothing she can do to change their minds so she's accepted what has to be done.

**Lily's Petal**: I've been talking constantly about what's going to happen when the 7th book comes out. I'm going to continue writing the story as I intended it. I already have it pretty much set out in my mind, particularly the ending, and I'm going to follow that, possibly taking some aspects from DH, particularly where Horcruxes are involved. :)

**storylover1992**: I'm glad you liked Harry and Ginny becoming more comfortable with each other again.

**Ecstace**: I absolutely LOVE Ginny. I don't think anyone really had her at the top of their list of characters before OOTP just because she wasn't all that present. But I fell in love with her in OOTP. She has a lot of similarities to Hermione (one of my other favorite characters) but in some ways is so much stronger. But the scene in OOTP where she calls Harry on his bull is when I decided that they were perfect for each other. :) And thanks for the compliments on the last chapter. I think you'll like this one too.

**LilyJames addict**: Ha ha, I think that's an equation that most of us can live by. This chapter has a bit of important information as well and it kind of gets the ball rolling for the action to begin, so I'm excited.

**Tk Tony**: I'm sorry you were discouraged by the long Author's Notes. I've had a couple people say that to me before, and I'll tell you what I told them. I enjoy answering people's questions and I encourage you to just read what I write to you and then read the story. Some people skim the other responses to see if I answer any questions that they may have had, but otherwise, it's not necessary to read them. Also, please elaborate on where I was cliche. I enjoy constructive criticism that can help me improve my writing and I try very hard NOT to be cliche (hence the premise of GUFT) although I'm sure that it happened just because there are some things that so many people write about that you can't help by be cliche occasionally. Otherwise though, I'm glad that the canon-ization came as a shock, and I'm glad you continued to read. I know I asked my readers to take a leap of faith, and I think most of them are glad they did. Anyway, sorry for the long response, I'm glad you're enjoying this story so far. :)

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: Did it get cut off again? Ha ha. Anyway I'm glad your question was answered, I try to do that. :)

Now, on with the story . . .

* * *

Chapter 6: New Leads

Petunia landed unsteadily. She had only side-along-Apparated a few times with Lily and she had never been very good at it. And as she hadn't done it in about 18 years, she found that it was even more horrible than she remembered.

By the look on Harry's face, she could tell that he didn't much enjoy it either.

Catching her eye he said, "I prefer a broom."

She smiled and said, "Me too."

She turned and her smile faded. There it was. Hogwarts. It looked exactly as she remembered it. Any damage done during the attack a few months ago, which Harry had told her about, had been repaired. She closed her eyes for a moment and remembered exactly how she had felt the first time she had seen it. She remembered Lily tackling her in the hall . . .

She snapped her eyes open and took a deep breath. She had not allowed herself to really think about Lily ever since she had gotten her memory back. She had let herself lose it with Remus over Sirius, but she could not think about Lily. The pain was just too much to handle.

"During the Order meeting I told Professor McGonagall that we would be coming today, so she should be down to open the gate for us soon," Hermione said.

"You didn't mention to her that we wouldn't be coming back to school this year?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked down. "I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I just told her we were coming so your Aunt could say her goodbyes to Dumbledore."

"Did she know that he was coming," Ron said, motioning his head toward Snape. Ron was still not happy about the fact that their former Professor was tagging along.

"I spoke to Minerva on my own, Mr. Weasley, and she assured me that I am always welcome back at Hogwarts," Severus sneered.

Before the two could continue, they were interrupted by Professor McGonagall and Hagrid coming down the way.

As soon as the gates were opened, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran to Hagrid and gave him a hug.

Hagrid had not been at the Order meeting that explained the spell, although Petunia assumed that Professor McGonagall had told him about what transpired. He still seemed to be struggling with the two sets of memories he had though.

"It's strange to see yeh, Petunia. I remember yeh from the Order an' bein' Lily's sister an' all, but then yer also the mean Aunt I rescued Harry from," Hagrid said, coming up to Petunia.

"Believe me. It's strange for all of us," Petunia said. "It's good to see you, Hagrid."

"Yeh too," Hagrid said distractedly as he had just spotted Severus and was staring at him with an unreadable expression. He clearly knew the story of why Severus killed Dumbledore, but it didn't seem that Hagrid had forgiven him.

"I didn't realize that all of you would be coming," Professor McGonagall said, motioning for everyone to follow her. "Miss Granger made it seem like it would just be Harry and Petunia. However, you are of course all welcome."

"Actually Professor, Ron, Harry, and I would like to talk to you while Harry's Aunt and Professor Snape go pay their respects," Hermione said, glancing at Harry and Ron.

Petunia looked at the three. She wondered why they wanted to meet with the Professor. They didn't really need permission to leave school, as they were of age, but she supposed they just wanted to be polite.

"Of course," Professor McGonagall said with a bit of curiosity. "We can head up to my office. Severus, Petunia, if you'll excuse us."

The two nodded, already having spotted the white tomb in the distance. Petunia felt her chest constrict painfully.

"I'll catch up to you," Harry told the others and hung back a moment to talk to his Aunt. "Are you going to be okay?"

Petunia gave him a small smile and said, "I'll be fine Harry. You go do what you have to do."

He nodded and, glancing back once more, jogged to catch up with the others.

Looking over at Severus, Petunia saw that he had frozen in his tracks. He was staring at the distant white tomb and his face was ashen. Petunia could see that his eyes were glassy and unfocused and she wondered if he was thinking about the last time he had seen Dumbledore. She couldn't even imagine what he had been thinking, how he had been feeling. But she knew that he had no one now, and as mad as she was at him for everything that had transpired between him and Harry, the majority of which she didn't even know about, she knew that at that moment, he needed her. So she took his hand, and together they walked toward the tomb.

It was a simple, unmarked, white marble tomb. Exactly as Dumbledore would have wanted. Well, if not that, Petunia thought with a smile, then possibly one painted purple with gold stars speckled about. And with that beautiful thought, she felt the wall she had been standing behind break down.

The tears began falling, silently, yet quickly. She just couldn't believe it. Dumbledore had been the first person to really make her feel like she belonged in the wizarding world. He had believed in her, taught her, showed her that she was so much more than a squib. Because of him, she had her wand, because of him, she could protect herself if the need arrived. And because of him, she had this world back. He was the one who sent Harry to her. She wished now that they would have told him about the spell. Perhaps he could have broken it sooner. Perhaps she could have given Harry the life he truly deserved. Perhaps she could have been there for Severus so that things would not have ended up the way they did. Perhaps Dumbledore could have still been alive.

During her musings, she had made her way up to the tomb and was now resting a shaking hand on it. She couldn't believe that Dumbledore was really inside of it. That she would really never see him again. That she would never be able to thank him for all that he had done for her.

She only took her hand away when she heard a sob from behind her. She turned and saw that Severus had fallen to the ground a few feet away and was shaking uncontrollably.

Running to his side, she kneeled beside him and tried to take him in her arms, but he pushed her away.

"Don't!" he said.

Not caring what he said, she tried again and again until finally he submitted.

Eventually, Severus said through his sobs. "I killed him. He was like a father to me and I killed him, just as I killed my real father. I killed my real father and Dumbledore took me in. Dumbledore forgave me. Who's going to forgive me now? Who?!"

Petunia held him and let him wail. She was possibly the only living person who had ever been allowed to see him like this, and even then, she had only seen him this bad once, maybe twice before. And she was sure that he had not let out these kind of emotions since she had been taken away from him. A little of the old Severus was coming back, but it hurt Petunia to know that it was causing him so much pain.

"I forgive you, Severus. And more importantly, Dumbledore does as well. It was what he wanted, Severus. You made a truly difficult sacrifice when you killed Dumbledore, but he believed that you could handle it. He would never have wanted to cause you pain. But he believed in you, believed that you could be the one to help Harry. He trusted you, Severus. When no one else did, he trusted you."

His shaking subsided a bit, but he continued to sob in Petunia's arms. Together they mourned the loss of a great wizard and a great man. Petunia knew that soon she would have to talk to Severus about his relationship with Harry or the trip would be excruciating, but right then all that mattered was the two of them, and their grief at having lost Dumbledore, and their comfort at having found each other once again.

* * *

Harry stood on his tiptoes so he could see Hermione over the pile of books in front of her. He was amazed that in a matter of minutes she had found about a million books that she hadn't already looked through at the end of last year.

"Found anything yet?" Harry asked.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and shook her head. "Nothing. I mean, we've figured out that R.A.B. was most likely a Death Eater, right? Because who else would really be close enough to Voldemort to find out about his Horcruxes?"

"And who else would call him The Dark Lord," Harry added.

"Exactly. But, it's not like there are any books that list all known Death Eaters. There are dozens of books about Voldemort and the last war, but they rarely mention any Death Eaters by name. I'm sure the Death Eaters like Malfoy made sure to keep those names out of publications," Hermione finished, gripping her hair in her fingers in frustration.

Ron came around the corner, carrying another stack of books. He dropped them onto the table with a grunt and said, "You know, I hate the git more than anyone, but we should ask Snape about R.A.B. After all, if anyone would be able to identify a Death Eater, it would be another Death Eater."

Hermione and Harry looked at Ron in shock.

"Okay, so maybe it's not a great idea," Ron said, looking hurt.

"No, Ron, exactly the opposite. It's a brilliant idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it," Hermione said, smiling at Ron.

Ron grinned and said, "Because you're Hermione, and your solution is always to go to the library."

Hermione threw her quill at him and smiled.

"How long have they been out there?" Harry asked, wanting to ask Snape about R.A.B. right away.

"About an hour now," Hermione said, "I'm sure they'll be back soon. Just wait until they come meet us. Give them time to grieve."

Harry nodded, not wanting to rush his Aunt's grief, yet not really caring about Snape's. He knew that Snape wasn't the bad guy anymore. All the evidence told him so. Yet, he could not let go of what Bellatrix Lestrange had once told him. In order to perform an Unforgivable Curse, you needed to mean it. Snape had been able to Avada Kedavra Dumbledore, so somewhere deep inside, he had to have meant it. Harry didn't care what the truth-serumed Snape said, he didn't care if everyone else trusted him, none of them had seen Snape do it. None of them had seen the look on his face. Harry would never trust Snape, not truly, and he didn't really believe the man deserved the chance to grieve over Dumbledore.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts by a sniffle behind him. He turned and saw that his Aunt had come into the library. She was still dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. Snape was behind her and Harry was surprised to see his eyes were rimmed in red. They were completely dry, but it was obvious that he had been crying. Harry didn't even think the man knew how to cry.

"Professor, we're glad you're here. We wanted to ask you if you knew of any Death Eaters with the initials R.A.B.," Hermione said, either not noticing the fact that Snape had been crying, or choosing to ignore it.

Snape sneered and said, "The Dark Lord had many followers, many of which I never knew the true identities of. I'm sure there were several with those initials, but none that I can think of at the moment."

"What else do you know about R.A.B.?" Aunt Petunia asked, stepping forward with an odd look on her face.

Harry fingered the locket in his pocket. He had carried it around ever since the moment he had taken it from Dumbledore's side. Slowly he pulled it out, and held it out to his Aunt. She took it and opened it. She pulled the little slip of paper out, the paper that Harry had read about a thousand times. A strange look came over her face as she read it. Slowly she passed it to Snape and as he read it, his mouth dropped slightly.

"So that's why . . ." he said quietly to himself.

"That's why what?" Harry asked, confused and excited.

"We knew R.A.B. Severus probably better than I did. But I met him. He joined the Death Eaters when he was young. Trying to prove something to his family. He wasn't a bad kid, just raised by the wrong people. He had a brother who, even though he would never admit it out loud, loved him very much. He would be proud to know that _this_," Aunt Petunia said holding up the locket, "was the reason that Voldemort decided to have him killed. I only wish he was alive to learn that his brother had been redeemed."

"You mean . . ." Harry said, putting the pieces together.

Aunt Petunia nodded, "Yes, R.A.B. is Regulus Alphard Black. Sirius' brother."

Harry sat down next to a shocked Hermione and Ron. Slowly, Harry began to remember the night that Dumbledore had died. The cave. The boat. The boat that could only carry one full wizard. Regulus had succeeded in retrieving the locket. That meant that he would have had to have had someone with him, someone who's magical ability the boat would not recognize. Someone who would do whatever Regulus asked of him, either forcing him to take the potion . . . or actually ingesting the potion themselves. Someone who would follow orders . . .

Standing up wide-eyed and excited, Harry said, "I know who might know where the locket is."

"Who Harry?" Hermione asked, "Regulus is dead."

"He couldn't have gone alone, and I know who must have gone with him. And he is still alive."

"Who, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Kreacher!" Harry called.

The small, filthy, bat-eared, red-eyed house elf appeared immediately.

"Filthy master calls Kreacher, and Kreacher comes. Comes even though he must be in the presence of mudbloods and blood-traitors. What is it that Master wishes?" Kreacher said, sinking into a deep bow.

"Kreacher, tell me about the night that Regulus took you to the cave with him," Harry said.

Kreacher looked up at Harry with wide bloodshot eyes.

"How does Master know about that? No one but Kreacher and young Master knows about that."

"It doesn't matter how I know, I just do. Now I'm ordering you to tell me about it."

Harry, Hermione, Ron, Snape, and Aunt Petunia all gathered around the house elf as he opened his mouth. After a few moments, he still hadn't said anything. Eventually he fell over. For a moment, Harry was afraid he had died. But Hermione had jumped to the house elf's side and assured Harry that he had just passed out.

"What happened to him?" Ron asked.

"Regulus probably ordered him not to tell anyone about that night. He had two conflicting orders and trying to obey both at once was too much for him," Aunt Petunia said.

"We'll figure out a way to counter-act the first order, but it doesn't really matter. We have something to go off of. Regulus took the locket. That gives us an idea of where to start searching," Harry said.

"Where?" Ron asked.

"Number 12 Grimmauld Place."

* * *

Voldemort was angry. But he was also impressed. He had learned a long time ago not to underestimate Lily Evans, and he was frustrated that she was living up to that notion.

At first, Voldemort had thought that Wormtail was just keeping information from him, but now, as he watched the rat writhing on the floor as his mind was probed, he knew that Lily had taken more precautions than anyone had suspected.

Everyone had remembered the spell had taken place, but no one, at least not Wormtail could remember the actual events of the spell.

Oh he remembered the basics, and was more than happy to tell his Lord, but not the details. Voldemort now knew that Lily performed the spell while drawing on the power from Petunia's friends. He knew that Petunia had to take a potion, which was prepared by Snape (and Voldemort was not too proud to admit that that information had stung). He knew that the spell was steeped in the traditions of old magic. Not a simple incantation, but a series of spells. But the actual words, the inflections, they were lost in Wormtail's mind, unable to be retrieved.

For two weeks now, Voldemort had delved into Wormtail's mind, examined that particular memory and the events leading up to it, and still he had nothing.

He threw his wand down in disgust. To be so close to something so powerful and unable to retrieve it was absolutely maddening. He watched as Wormtail struggled to his feet only to fall once more.

"M-m-my L-lord, I'm so s-sorry. I wish I c-could help you m-m-more," Wormtail said, crawling to kiss the hem of Voldemort's robes.

Voldemort kicked the sniveling little man away and called for Bellatrix.

"Yes, my Lord," Bellatrix said, sweeping into the room.

"Take Wormtail away, he is irritating me," Voldemort said, wanting to be left alone to think.

Bellatrix nodded and kicked Wormtail until he began crawling from the room. When the two had left, Voldemort lost himself in his thoughts. He couldn't shake the idea that it was only Wormtail who was unable to remember the exact words and wand movements of the spell. After all, it was a spell that depended on _love_, perhaps someone like Wormtail who had not remained loyal would be unable to remember.

It had been mildly amusing torturing Wormtail, but now it was quite obvious that the amusement would be all he could gain. He was ready to move on, to learn more. He needed to find someone else who had been present at the spell.

He went through the list once more. Lily, obviously the best candidate, but unfortunately dead, at his own hands. Once again, that stung. James Potter, also dead, also by him, which brought a small smile. Black, dead, a nice job by Bellatrix. Pettigrew, useless. Snape, traitor. Oh, how that man made Voldemort's blood boil. Of course, he would have to bring Snape in eventually anyway, as he would be the only person who would know how the potion was made, but Voldemort wanted to wait a while on that. First he wanted the spell ready. Petunia, was with Snape. Of course, Voldemort had sent Death Eaters to retrieve the squib when he had remembered her, but she had already gone. They had tortured the husband and found out she left with Snape. And Potter.

That only left the werewolf and Alice Longbottom. These days the werewolf seemed to be in deep hiding, and would be almost impossible to capture, and Longbottom was de . . . no wait. Not dead. Of course, her mind would be easier to break than anyone's. So fragile and innocent.

"Bellatrix," Voldemort called once more.

"Yes, my Lord," Bellatrix said, appearing immediately.

"I have a task for you, one I believe you'll enjoy," Voldemort said, a new determination stirring inside of him.

"Of course, my Lord. What is it you wish me to do?"

"I'd like you to go visit an old friend," Voldemort said with a wicked smile.

* * *

**A/N**: I don't know why, but I'm really really proud of this chapter. I think it's one of my best and I don't say that often as I'm my biggest critic. Only one more week until Deathly Hallows! I'm going to try to get at least one more chapter out before then. Anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter, and the OOTP movie:)


	7. Chapter 7: A Truce

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Okay guys, here's the thing. I just finished this chapter and I am about to go get my copy of Deathly Hallows (well in three hours, I'm going to wait in line right now) so because I finished this chapter super last minute I'm not going to be able to do my individual responses, but I wanted to post this before I read the book. Just to let everyone know once more, I will be writing this still, and I will be continuing with the plot I have in my head, even if Deathly Hallows contradicts it. So yeah, it might be a little bit before the next update as I will need time to process the end of the series (!) But I will be back and the journey will continue. Until then, enjoy this chapter, and more importantly enjoy Deathly Hallows. Oh, and please, no spoilers in the reviews. I'll finish reading my copy within 24 hours, but everyone else might not, and I don't want to ruin the magic for anyone. If you want to discuss the book with me, feel free to send me a PM . . . on Sunday!

Oh, and please excuse typos . . . no time to edit. :-p

* * *

Chapter 7: A Truce

_"Severus," Regulus said as he fell into the man's office. _

_Severus looked up from the papers he was grading. He had only been the Potions master at Hogwarts for a couple of months and still wasn't quite used to it. And it was certainly not normal for him to have Death Eater visitors arriving from his fireplace._

_Standing Severus crossed the room to help Regulus up. "Is something wrong Regulus? Did the Dark Lord send you?"_

_A strange look passed over Regulus' face. The boy was quite pale. He had only been marked for about six months, taking it soon after he graduated from Hogwarts. It had broken Severus' heart, because he knew that it was at least partly his fault, as he had been the one to introduce the boy into the ranks of Death Eaters. Severus wanted so badly to bring him back to his side, but was afraid of revealing his role as spy to the wrong person._

_"No, the Dark Lord did not send me," Regulus said, breaking into Severus' thoughts._

_The young boy was still looking nervous and scared. It sent a pain through Severus' body to look at him. He had never seen anyone look so scared, and yet so determined._

_"Whatever it is, Regulus. You can trust me. You're like a brother to me, and you can trust me with whatever is going on," Severus said. _

_For a moment, Regulus stared at Severus. He was so young, only seventeen years old, and he looked as if he wanted to seek guidance from the man in front of him, but after a moment the look on his face faded and he shook his head._

_"I can't tell you, Severus. I can't tell anyone. I just wanted to come and say goodbye. I'm going to do something tonight that could very well mean the end of my life, but hopefully it will be a step towards the life that so many other wants and deserve . . ." Regulus trailed off, looking on the verge of tears._

_"Regulus," Severus said, reaching out to the boy once more, but he had already moved toward the fireplace and had disappeared._

_Severus thought about the boy over the next few days wondering what exactly he had done. A few days later The Dark Lord ordered a couple of his most lethal Death Eaters to find and kill the boy. They succeeded. Regulus was never seen again._

Severus shook himself out of his memories and turned to look at Petunia who was reading a book on house elves and the magic that controls them. They had decided to leave for Grimmauld place the next day, and Petunia had been hitting the books with Granger trying to figure out how to get information out of Kreacher.

He still couldn't believe that she was actually sitting there across from him. The night he lost her had been the beginning of the end. First her, then Regulus, then Lily, and in a way Remus, and finally Dumbledore. Everyone he had ever cared about, who had ever cared about him, disappeared out of his life. But now . . . she was back. The most important person to ever have been in his life was back.

But she could barely even look at him. Severus didn't even know how he had gotten to the place he was at. In essence, he knew why he had always tormented Potter. Partly because he reminded him so much of James, who Severus still despised from the depths of his heart, but more than that, he tormented Potter because he was scared. _This_ was supposed to be the boy who could kill the Dark Lord? There was nothing extraordinary about him. He didn't have any of Lily's talent . . . hell, he didn't even measure up to James' talent, which Severus hated to admit even existed. How could all of Severus' hopes rest on this boy?

He look up again at Petunia and saw that this time she was looking back at him. As always, being faced with a full-on stare down from Petunia caused his breath to catch in his throat. He still couldn't believe that after all these years, just a look from her made him feel more alive than he had felt in years. Just being around her again assured him that he was, in fact, still alive and breathing.

She gave him a small smile and went back to her reading.

A few moments later, Potter and Weasley came running into the library.

"Put down the books, there's no need, Ron here's a genius," Potter said, clapping Weasley on the back.

Weasley ducked his head and said, "Not a genius, just someone with a good memory."

"Okay, explain," Granger said, waving her hand out to them impatiently, but she was smiling nonetheless.

"Well, Harry and I were talking about the locket and he was describing it to me, and Hermione, you remember that one we found in Sirius' house when we were cleaning, the heavy one that no one could open?" Weasley said.

Severus looked over at Granger and saw a dawning recognition cross her face. She nodded, "The gold one, with the S on it . . ."

Potter nodded, "Slytherin's mark. That was the locket. Voldemort's Horcrux."

"That's why we couldn't open it! A piece of Voldemort's soul is inside of there. Of course he would have protections around it to ensure that even if someone retrieved it, they would not immediately be able to destroy the piece of his soul . . ." Granger said.

"And the fact that you couldn't open it means that Regulus was unable to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul. If he had, it would just be a normal locket again," Petunia said, closing her book.

"This is all very well and good," Severus finally spoke up, "But is the locket even there anymore, Black had quite a time purging everything out of that house. Leave it to him to still screw things up . . ."

"Don't you dare say his name!" Potter said, eyes flashing.

Petunia stood and placed a hand on Potter's shoulder to calm him. "That was unnecessary, Severus. But it doesn't matter anyway, I found out a very simple way to make Kreacher tell you everything he knows. Most house elves serve the same master their entire life, so it's not widely known, but the house elf must obey their most current master. You just have to first order Kreacher to obey anything you tell him, and disregard any past orders from old masters."

Granger looked at Petunia in wonder, "It's really that simple?"

Petunia shrugged and said, "Sometimes the right answer is the simplest one."

"Kreacher!" Potter called.

Once again the house elf appeared, looking more belligerent than ever. "What can Kreacher do for his master now?"

"I want you to meet us at Grimmauld Place. But first, I order you to obey everything I ask of you, even if it conflicts with past masters' orders. I am your master now, do you understand that?"

Kreacher looked on the verge of revolt, and Severus noticed with a sneer that Granger almost looked like she wished he would. Trust her to fall back on her elf rights' obsession, even when the fate of the wizarding world hung in the balance. Eventually though, Kreacher nodded.

"Good. I want you to go to Grimmauld Place and I want you to get the locket for us. Leave it there, we'll come by in a few minutes to get it," Potter said.

After the house elf had disappeared, Potter turned to everyone else and said, "I think it's best if we leave tonight rather than waiting until tomorrow now that we know the locket's there."

Everyone else nodded, and gathered their belongings. They made their way outside of Hogwarts so that they could Apparate to London. With Petunia holding onto his arm, Severus took a last look back at the castle that had been his home for so many years and wondered if he would ever be coming back to it again.

* * *

Petunia felt sick to her stomach, and she knew that this time it had nothing to do with Apparating. She held the piece of paper in her hand that Professor McGonagall had given her before they left.

None of them had thought about the fact that she would not be able to see Grimmauld Place since Dumbledore had not told her the location. However, McGonagall had spoken to Dumbledore's portrait and found where he kept an extra piece of paper with the address scrawled on it. She had been told it was the last one Dumbledore had ever written.

As the house slowly moved into view, she remembered the first and last time she had ever been there, and her eyes began to fill with tears. She fought them back as hard as she could, but she couldn't fight it.

Sirius had loved her fiercely, and she had loved him in return. His feelings had always been stronger, and she had fallen in love with Severus, but she had never stopped caring about him. He had had a horrible life, and she hated that his last year alive was spent in this house where so many bad memories tormented him, although she was glad that he at least did not remember seeing his girlfriend tortured by his cousin.

The cousin that later killed him.

Petunia felt her blood boiling at the thought of Bellatrix, and the tears subsided a bit as she let the anger take over.

"Can we make this a quick visit?" she said quietly to Harry.

Harry looked like he was dealing with similar emotions to Petunia and nodded.

"You've been here before then?"

Petunia nodded, voicing what she was sure Harry had guessed, or at least suspected. "Sirius and I were involved for about a year. I came to a Christmas party here. His family gave me the welcome that I'm sure you would suspect his family of giving to a squib."

Harry looked up at his Aunt and said, "Did they hurt you?"

Petunia shook her head and said, "Another time Harry. It's a bad memory. This whole house is one big bad memory for Sirius and anyone who cared about him."

With an understanding nod, Harry grabbed his Aunt's hand and they walked through the front door together.

They were met with a grinning Kreacher.

"Kreacher is so very sorry master, but the locket is not here. Kreacher looked in the place where it was kept and searched all over the house, but it is not here. There are many things missing in fact," the smile on Kreacher's face faded a bit at that last remark, but the house elf was unable to hide its glee at foiling Harry's plan.

"Dung!" Harry said angrily.

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione said.

"What?" Petunia said, confused.

"Mundungus Fletcher," Harry explained. "I caught him last year, selling off old Black heirlooms. He must have stolen the locket. That idiot is running around with a piece of Voldemort's soul in his pocket."

"If he hasn't sold it already," Severus said quietly.

"Well what are we going to do?" Hermione asked, looking a bit hopeless.

Harry shook his head. For the first time since they had started off, he looked utterly stumped.

"You all are going to go to Godric's Hollow as originally planned," Severus said, surprising everyone. "I have resources that would be hard to access with you all tagging along, and with those resources I can find Fletcher. If he hasn't sold the locket yet, so much the better. If he has, I cannot have you tagging along as getting it back will be exceedingly dangerous."

"You really think that I'm going to trust _you_ . . ." Harry started.

"Look Potter, I know you don't trust me. I know you don't like me. I'm not fond of you either. But you're at a crossroads. You cannot do this alone, and I have the means to help you. Let me track down the locket. Believe me, if it is able to be found, I will be able to get it within a day or two. You take that time to take your Aunt and say goodbye to Lily. She was a great woman and . . . it is a shame that you never had a chance to know her," Severus' eye twitched a bit and Petunia almost laughed at how hard it was for him to say anything even remotely nice to Harry. "Just give me this chance to prove that you can trust me, Pot . . . Harry."

Harry looked absolutely stunned. Severus looked like he was about to be ill. Finally Harry said quietly, "If you are not at Godric's Hollow in two days, we're coming after you. We still need you to take us to the other Horcruxes."

Slowly Severus held out his hand and Harry took it in his. They did one firm shake and immediately let go.

Ron looked skeptical. Hermione looked proud.

Petunia couldn't hold back her smile. She stepped up to Severus and pulled him into a hug.

"Be careful," she whispered in his ear, before giving him a gentle kiss. He looked at her in with so much emotion in his eyes before he turned and walked out of the door, Apparating as soon as he had crossed the threshold.

Petunia turned to face three very disgusted faces.

Finally Harry opened his mouth and said, "Please don't ever, ever do that again in front of me."

Petunia smiled and shook her head before a wave of sadness washed over her. Her sister had been dead for nearly 16 years, and it was finally time for her to say goodbye.

"Are you ready, Harry?" she said, grabbing onto his hand so he could Apparate her.

"Now that I have you with me, I am."

* * *

**A/N**: Um, yeah, I know it's short, but I just wanted to get SOMETHING up:) 


	8. Chapter 8: Godric's Hollow

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: I know, I know. I'm a horrible human being who always breaks her promises when it comes to updates. :( It's just after Deathly Hallows, my muse, she deserted me. But she is back, and I have many, many new ideas for this story, and I will only have to plagiarize DH a little. :) That being said, here's responses to the last TWO chapters since I didn't respond at the beginning of the last chapter because of the excitement of DH. (Has it really been THAT long? Oh my!)

**storylover1992**: Chapter 6 Response: I'm glad you liked my capturing of Petunia and Snape's grief. It was really hard, and I always feel like I'm making Snape OOC when I make him cry, but my Snape is a little OOC, so I've just come to accept that. And I was able to give you a chapter before DH came out, I'm just sorry this one took so long.

**Rebecca Lynn**: Chapter 6 Response: Ah, yes, I had the perfect portrayal of Kreacher . . . until I read DH. Jo's idea was SO much better. I couldn't believe I found myself loving Kreacher. I think I'm going to have to plagiarize that idea and have a nice Kreacher in future chapters. Chapter 7 Response: Okay, how much do I love that you read the chapter BEFORE reading the book. You're nuts! Anyway, sorry for the long wait. Hopefully it's worth it.

**Tk Tony**: Chapter 6 Response: Ha ha, yeah, I thought it was ironic, too. I'm sure you liked that last chapter I didn't have them . . . of course, that means this chapter they're all longer. It's a give and take. And as far as RAB goes, I guess it turns out that everyone was right. Jo couldn't have _everything_ shrouded in mystery after all. Chapter 7: Nope, don't get it. What exactly were you yelling and cursing in disbelief about . . . if you still remember, I mean. I know it's been a while.

**Lily's Petal**: Chapter 6 Response: All I have to say to that review is, thank Jo that DH didn't prove me wrong, at least when it came to Snape. And hey, I had a pretty good idea going, huh? Petunia is after all just a continuation of Lily. ;)

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: Chapter 6 Response: Your Neville hope may be granted as I recently had a burst of inspiration for a story line for this fic. Plus after reading DH I love Neville even more, and need to fully realize his BAMF-ness in my own story. Chapter 7 Response: Thanks for the spoiler speak. I'm not going to use it though, because by now I'm sure everyone has read the book. I cried immensely when Snape died, too. I still haven't decided whether or not he's going to live through this fic. Sorry I took so long to update, but I always finish what I start, even if it takes a while.

**Ecstace**: Chapter 6 Response: I think most people had that OMG Alice! reaction. We learn a LOT more about her in this chapter. It's something I wanted to put in GUFT, but couldn't really figure out how, and I'm really glad I didn't force it, because I think it works perfectly in this chapter. Chapter 7: I do plan to incorporate some things from DH, but not a lot. My story is very different in many ways. And yeah, when I was reading there were times where I was like "Oooh, oooh . . . I was SOOOO right!" Of course there were other times where I was like, "Wow, I was sooo wrong!"

**Drayvin04**: Chapter 6 Response: you are a twisted individual. Then again . . . I'm the one who wrote that he was tortured. Hmm . . .

**Bahzad**: Chapter 6 Response: As weird as this sounds, I actually like Bellatrix more after seeing the movie. Well, to be more clear, I enjoy writing her more. She's evil and horrible, but kind of fabulously crazy at the same time. Helena Bonham Carter captured her beautifully. I actually wrote her in this chapter, and I can't write her without imagining Helena. Chapter 7 Response: I'm glad you liked the chapter. And I did enjoy DH:)

**killtheold**: Chapter 6 Response: Well this is the first chapter I've posted since DH came out, so we'll see how it goes. :) As for more on Petunia/Sirius, I do plan to get into that more, Harry is going to be full of questions, but I haven't had the best opportunity for it yet. I'm sure you saw in the last chapter that I included a bit of his curiosity in the subject.

**LilyJamesaddict**: Chapter 6 Response: I'm glad you asked that question. Yes, Alice's thoughts are all broken up, but at the same time, because they are so fluid, they are easier to access, because it's harder for a spell to contain them . . . believe me, it will be addressed more in the coming chapters. :) Chapter 7: Ha ha, very nice song. Not much Petunia/Severus in this chapter though. And by not much, I mean none.

**Daniel**: Chapter 6 Response: I'm glad you found the story. I know the spell was confusing. I confuse myself with it sometimes. As for the potion, I think you're referring to the potion that goes along with the spell. It's made up by me, just like the spell. Basically it's purpose is to make the person the spell is being casted on forget their memories as well, because the spell does not affect them. Now you may be asking, why didn't I just create the spell so that it would affect the person it's being cast on, and I would tell you there are two reasons. One, I needed there to be some reason that Severus still remembered Petunia, and two, because when I created the spell I had this story in mind and the potion will be very important in this story. :) I bet you got more than you bargained for with that question.

**Char**: Chapter 6 Response: I respect your opinion, but at the same time, if you don't like the ships, then don't read this story . . . and for that matter, don't read the Harry Potter books, as clearly my ships are how Jo always intended it to be. I have nothing against other ships, I really don't. I could see how people would love to see Harry and Hermione together. However, I love Jo's original work. I love the canon, and so I stick to it . . . as much as I can while still sticking to the story I have in my head.

**Leogal063**: Well I'm glad you gave GUFT another chance, as it would be really hard to understand this story without reading that. :) And wow, that was a long review. You have a lot of favorite quotes. I like Dudley more now after reading DH as well, and I've been really torn on if I want to use him in this story, and if I do, how exactly I want to use him. And you made a good point about Dudley possibly being a wizard because of the squib thing skipping a generation. I had thought of that, then decided against it, for no real reason. Then recently I read an interview with Jo and she said something that made me laugh and made me realize that's the EXACT reason, even though I didn't even know it. She said something along the lines of Vernon's DNA killing any and all wizarding genes. As for Dudley remembering the spell, he wasn't there, so he couldn't. Anyway, sorry this update took so long. I hope you're still reading. :)

And now, on with the story . . .

* * *

Chapter 8: Godric's Hollow

It was strange for Harry to feel so very connected to a place that he could not even truly remember, but as soon as he had landed in Godric's Hollow he felt an immense sense of belonging. This was his home. He looked around the tiny village and smiled. He wondered where his home was and his face fell as he scanned the area.

There it was, still in ruins. Had the magic of the backfiring Killing Curse been irreversable?

Petunia placed a hand on his shoulder as she too looked toward the ruins. "I'm sure they left it like that on purpose. A reminder of what was gained that night . . . and what was lost."

Ron and Hermione hung back as Harry and Petunia walked forward toward the house, and just as they were about to go through the gate, Petunia stopped as well.

Harry turned toward her, a question in his eyes. She motioned for him to go ahead without her, at least for a moment. Harry nodded, understanding that he really did need to go inside for the first time on his own. The front of the house was pretty much in tact. It was just a room upstairs toward the back that was in complete ruins . . . that had been his room.

Thanks to the Dementors in his third year, he knew exactly what had taken place that night. Even now, he could hear his mother, begging for his life. His mouth twitched slightly, knowing now that his mother had known that if she succeeded in getting Voldemort to kill her first, that he would be defeated. Not that that's what she had been thinking, she was thinking of the fact that her son would be safe.

He walked further into the house, glancing at the kitchen, before heading up the stairs. He could hear his aunt, Ron, and Hermione following behind him. He kept himself flat against the wall away from where the house had been blasted apart, and moved toward the other end of the hall. He opened a door and saw a room that housed a large queen sized bed. Even though it was clear that no one had set foot in the room in many years by the dust and cobwebs, the room was remarkably well kept. If he squinted he could almost imagine his mom and dad walking in. This was their room.

Harry heard Petunia draw in a breath behind him. He turned and looked at her.

She had tears in her eyes as she said, "Lily never was one for redecorating. This room looks exactly the same as her and James' room in their old flat looked."

"Why didn't anyone ever come and move their stuff?" Ron asked quietly.

"The same reason no one ever repaired the house. Everything is exactly as it was that night," Hermione said quietly, tears shining in her eyes as well.

"If everything's the same . . ." Petunia said, putting a hand to her mouth. Slowly she walked toward a trunk that was situated at the end of the bed. She opened it and rummaged through for a few minutes. Finally she found what she was looking for.

Harry maneuvered himself to see what his Aunt was holding.

In her shaking arms, she held a neatly bound pink leather journal with Lily Evans embroidered on the spine in silver thread. She was crying more than ever now as she clutched it to her chest.

"Is that . . . is that my Mum's diary?" Harry asked, barely daring to believe that he would be able to read her thoughts, that he would finally be able to understand who his mother was.

Petunia nodded, "I gave it to her on her eleventh birthday . . . the same day she got her Hogwart's letter. It's magical. She wrote in it her entire life. Her whole life is in here. Getting into Hogwarts, meeting James, fighting Voldemort, creating the spell that would change history, having you . . . probably even discovering that she would be able to save you, but to do it she'd have to . . ."

Harry fell to the ground and hugged his Aunt, who was crying too much to go on. After a few moments, he gathered the courage to ask, "May I see it?"

Petunia shook her head sadly, "We'll never be able to read it. It will only open to Lily's voice. That particular feature cost me quite a few galleons."

"Excuse me, Petunia, I hate to interrupt, but I don't think the diary is locked," Hermione said, taking a tentative step forward.

Looking up with wide eyes, Harry looked quickly back at the diary. Hermione was right. The diary was closed, but the lock was not clasped. Slowly, Petunia tried to open the diary, but disappointment filled her face as still it would not open.

"I don't understand," Hermione said. "It's not locked, why can't you open it."

Petunia closed her eyes, trying to remember everything the merchant had told her about the diary. Finally she opened her eyes and said with as much hope as she had in her, "Flower sisters."

Once again she tried to open the diary, and this time it worked.

Harry looked over his aunt's shoulder and saw neat, yet still child-like handwriting. It was his Mum's first entry.

"I thought you said it only opened to her voice," Ron asked, moving further into the room to join the others, "How were you able to open it?"

"It wasn't locked," Petunia said, "so the voice recognition wasn't activated. But you still need to know the password to be able to open it. Lily knew . . ."

Harry placed a hand on his Aunt's shoulder as she struggled to find her voice.

"Lily knew that I knew the password, that one day I'd end up with my memory back. Either that, or she meant this for Severus as he would be the only other person on the planet who could guess the password while I was still under the spell."

"Because he knew about you and Lily and how close you were," Hermione guessed.

Petunia nodded and then slowly handed the diary back to Harry.

"She would have wanted us to give this to you. I don't have to read this to know that the decision to sacrifice herself to save you was the hardest one Lily ever had to make, not because she was afraid to die, but because you would never get to have a mother, never get to know who she was. I'm sure it killed her to know how much pain her leaving would cause you, but she was a mother, and it was the only real choice she could make. I think this might be her way of letting you know who she was."

Harry took the diary, unable to bring himself to read it right then. But before he could put it away, Hermione moved toward him.

"Wait," she said drawing her wand and pointing it at the diary.

Harry drew it protectively toward him.

Hermione's face softened and she said, "I only wanted to remove the lock. You wouldn't want the diary to accidently lock, or you'd never be able to get it open."

Nodding, Harry held the diary out, and Hermione performed a fairly complicated unsticking charm that separated the lock from the diary. When she was done, Harry tucked it carefully in his knapsack and began to look around the rest of the room.

There were several pictures on the bedside table and the vanity. Most of them featured his own drooling baby face. There were pictures of him with his Mum and Dad. Pictures of him with Sirius and Remus . . . and Wormtail.

Harry glared and striding across the room, picked up the picture and threw it against a wall. As it shattered, Petunia, Hermione, and Ron jumped. Petunia slowly picked it up and sighed.

"It's really hard to believe . . ." Petunia started.

"Not that hard," Harry sneered. "For thirteen years people believed it was Sirius who betrayed my parents. _That_ is hard to believe."

Petunia picked up a picture of Sirius and Harry that was sitting nearby and said, "I never would have believed it. Never."

She looked down with a soft smile and stroked the picture of Sirius.

Harry was about to ask his Aunt a question when Hermione beat him to it.

"Did you love him?"

Petunia smiled and said, "It was impossible not to love Sirius. If you were sad he would make it his mission to make you smile. And if you were in a wonderful mood, he would make it his mission to play some kind of prank on you. Happy targets were his favorite. They were less likely to hit him." Petunia turned to Harry and said, "I'm so glad you had the chance to get to know him. I'm sure he wasn't the same Sirius I knew, but any kind of Sirius is better than no Sirius at all."

Harry smiled, "That sounds like something he would say."

"He did. Often. He used to love to prank Peter, and when Peter would be screaming at him about how obnoxious he was, Sirius would always say that an obnoxious Sirius is better than no Sirius at all, and then he would not talk to Peter for a few days until Peter would realize how much he missed Sirius and would apologize . . . for not appreciating Sirius' pranks."

Ron laughed and Hermione smiled, but Harry's face was once more set in a scowl.

"How can you talk about him with such fondness? That murderous traitor?"

Petunia looked down at the picture of Peter and said, "Because as far as I'm concerned, Peter and Wormtail are two different people.Peter was funny . . . goofy really. He was a brilliant Quidditch player, a little awkward with girls, yet sweet enough that he had a girlfriend or two. He was my friend. He was James' and Lily's friend. I don't know what lead him to betraying them, but I do know that the Peter I knew wouldn't have done it. That Peter is dead . . . and I miss him as much as I miss James and Sirius . . . almost as much as I miss Lily."

"Harry, perhaps we should go look at your room. I know you wanted to come here for sentimental reasons, but there is also a chance that there could be something here that can help us," Hermione said.

"And if there is anything, it would be where the curse backfired," Ron finished.

Hermione smiled at Ron who grinned back. Harry nodded knowing they were right, but still being afraid to go to the site of his mother's death. He picked up his Mum's diary and began following them down the hall, his Aunt close by his side.

Stopping in the doorway, Hermione performed a couple of charms to reinforce the floor. After a few moments she took a tentative step into the destroyed room, and seeing that the charms were holding, motioned the rest of them in.

Harry stopped in the doorway.

The night sky was visible above them, stars twinkling brightly. Almost everything was burnt a dark black. In the center of the room was a charred crib, a mobile hanging haphazardly above it. Harry closed his eyes and could practically imagine spending night after night in that crib. He could imagine looking through those bars as he watched Voldemort kill his mother, unable to really understand what was happening, but knowing it was something bad. He imagined being nothing more than a baby, thinking that his mother was just sleeping as he looked up into the snakelike face of the man who intended to murder him. He saw the flash of green . . .

Harry opened his eyes with a start. It was almost as if he remembered, even though he knew he couldn't. At least he didn't think he could. Either way, he knew there was nothing here that would help them and he didn't want to spend any more time in this place than necessary.

"I can't do this," Harry said, turning from the doorway and leaving.

"I don't think there's anything here," Petunia said to Ron and Hermione, "But take a quick look around and then meet us downstairs. We'll figure out what to do then."

Ron and Hermione nodded and went back to looking through the rubble.

"It's strange isn't it?" Ron asked, after Petunia had left the room.

"What's strange?" Hermione asked, gently picking up a piece of debris, not really paying attention.

"That with just a small turn of events, this could have been the place where our best friend in the world died."

Hermione dropped the lid of the toy box she had opened and looked up into Ron's eyes.

She let out a breath and said, "I didn't even think of it that way."

"I did. I do every day. Everyone else in the world just thinks, if things had been different we wouldn't have the Boy Who Lived. Voldemort would have been wreaking havoc for the last sixteen years. And sure, that's horrible and scary, but what would be so much worse than that would be that we wouldn't have Harry. Can you even imagine a world without Harry?"

Hermione stared at Ron for a moment. Slowly she stood and closed the distance between him. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"I cannot for one moment imagine a world without our best friend in it," Hermione said into Ron's shoulder, as she sniffled back tears.

"Well then I guess it's our job to make sure that when this is all said and done, we still have him," Ron said, holding Hermione tightly.

"Yeah, we'll have to make sure he gets the name The Boy Who Lived . . . again," Hermione said, laughing between her tears.

Ron laughed, too, and held Hermione tighter. Soon after, they pulled apart, avoiding each other's eyes. Now was not the time, and they both knew it. Right now the only thing that mattered to either of them was Harry, and keeping him safe.

"Come on, let's go downstairs and see if we can find something to eat," Ron said, moving toward the doorway.

"Ron, no one's lived here in sixteen years. Do you really think there will be anything edible left?"

Ron shook his head and said, "You're the smartest witch I know, Hermione, but you're still a muggleborn. Magic, my dear Hermione, magic."

Hermione smacked Ron hard on the arm for the muggleborn comment, but followed him down the stairs with a smile on her face.

* * *

A few hours later, the trio and Petunia were seated around the kitchen table in Harry's childhood home discussing ways to open the locket. They were all working under the assumption that Snape would be able to find it.

"You know what's more important than knowing how to open the locket?" Hermione put in, drawing the outrageous debate of whether or not dropping an anvil on it would work. Everyone stopped their arguing and looked at her. "Knowing how to destroy it."

"Well it has to be written down somewhere," Petunia pointed out. "Voldemort couldn't have just learned how to make them from nowhere. He had to have read it somewhere, and wherever it's written how to make them, it has to be written how to destroy them."

"Those books must be really rare though. Most people have never even heard of a Horcrux," Ron said.

Hermione pursed her lips, thinking hard. "That doesn't mean the books are rare. That just means they're full of evil. There are plenty of things that wizards haven't heard of, because they would never think to look into them. That's why Voldemort is so dangerous. He can do things that other wizards would never dare do."

"So books on Horcruxes could be found where Dark Wizards go?" Ron thought aloud.

"Knockturn Alley?" Harry suggested.

"Maybe," Hermione said, "But I'm not sure. We're not just talking about dangerous magic. We're talking about the darkest of all magic. Forbidden magic. The ability to make yourself immortal, at the cost of another's life . . . at the cost of your very soul."

Ron shivered, "Man, Hermione, when you say it like that . . . I don't think I'll be able to even sleep tonight."

Hermione smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I've just been thinking about it a lot. Voldemort is one twisted . . . thing."

Harry actually laughed and said, "Yeah, the murderous lunatic thing wouldn't really tip you off."

"Oh, you know what I mean," Hermione said, blushing. "Still I don't even think those books would be in Knockturn Alley. Even that place isn't quite THAT dark."

"Still, it's the only lead we have. And really there's no point in going until we have the locket. At least we have a bit of a plan. Once Severus gets back with the locket, we'll head to Knockturn Alley. Unless he has a better idea of where to look for books on the subject," Petunia said.

"As obsessed as he is with the Dark Arts, I wouldn't be surprised if he has them in his own personal library," Ron said.

"Ron!" Hermione said.

"What? On our side or not, you can't deny that he's a bit obsessed. You must be able to see it, too?" Ron said, turning to Petunia.

One of the saddest times in her life had been when she lost Severus to the Dark. When his mother had died, that had been it. And it was true. He didn't just study the Dark Arts. He held them in high esteem. He would talk about them the same way some people would talk about a work of art. Even after he had reformed and come back to the good side, Petunia could remember conversations they had had. He was convinced that not all Dark magic was bad. It was the intention behind magic, he would always say. Even Dark Arts could be used for good, as long as the _intention_ was pure. It had scared her at times . . . but she had come to accept that that was just who Severus was.

Still . . . even he couldn't find a way to explain Horcruxes as anything but the evil things they were.

"Severus has many less than desirable qualities, and I won't deny that a certain _affinity _toward the Dark Arts is one of them, but believing it is okay to kill another in order to gain immortality is not one of them."

Ron shrugged, as if to say that it was all the same to him.

Petunia was glad to see that it looked as if Harry, at least, had really taken in what she said. She wanted so much for him and Severus to put aside their differences. Still . . . she didn't even know the whole story of the animosity between them. She considered asking him to come talk with her for a while, when she noticed him stifling a yawn.

"It is getting quite late. We should probably all settle down for the evening, and hopefully Severus will have returned by morning."

The others nodded, and moved to the living room, where they had agreed they would rest for the night. As Petunia drifted off, she couldn't help but wonder, if Lily had never performed the spell, how many times would she have slept under this roof?

* * *

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. Bellatrix had sent many a witch and wizard here, but the Longbottoms had to be her favorite pair. Sometimes at night she could remember their delicious screams and it would send her to sleep with a smile.

They had both been so brave and noble. It made Bellatrix sick to her stomach. They had refused to give up anything, refusing even to scream under torture. That was until Bellatrix had had the idea to put them in a room together.

At first they had separated them, her husband's idea. He believed that if they were together they would be able to lend one another strength to resist. She had gone along with the idea at first, thinking them both weak minded enough that they would talk once the first curse hit them. She had underestimated them though. No screams, no information. Nothing.

But she understood something her husband never could. The real art of torture was not the physical pain, but the emotional. These were could, kind-hearted, _loving_ people. The kind of people that make you want to vomit. She knew that forcing them to watch the other be tortured would be the way to get them to talk.

But even that hadn't worked. The screams were magnificent though. She remembered with a smile, how they had begged her to stop hurting the other. Little Alice had tears streaming down her face as she watched her precious husband writhe on the floor. But the begging was for nothing, because once the torture stopped, still they refused to speak.

Until the boy had wandered in.

He was crying. Clearly upset by his parents screams. Little Alice had immediately pulled him into her arms, though it was clear that her brain was already addled, as her words to her child came out of her mouth backwards.

But addled or not, Bellatrix could see the gleam of terror in the young woman's eyes. The same gleam matched in her husband's. Oh they loved one another deeply. She could see they loved each other with the same passion that she loved her husband, but the love for their child. That ran deeper. It matched the love that Bellatrix held for her Master. She knew that they would talk, whether or not they would be able to be understood was another story, but any information, even gibberish information that would need to be translated later, was better than nothing.

It was a strange moment in Bellatrix's life. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt hesitation before torturing someone, and yet, for a moment she did. She had never tortured a baby before. But she only hesitated for a moment . . . to this day she cursed herself for even that one moment, because if she hadn't, perhaps things would have been different.

She had the spell on the baby for a few seconds at the most, and oh the memory of those screams still sent a shiver of pleasure through her body. So innocent, so agonizing, so unencumbered by the desire to put on a strong front. Just pure pain. Bellatrix shook herself out of the pleasurable memory and forced herself to remember the rest. Just a few seconds, and the saintly Alice had screamed for her to stop, screamed that she would tell her everything. She was so distraught, that she was even fighting off the brain-destroying effects of the prolonged Cruciatus Curse. Bellatrix knew she had cracked her, and she was ready to give up everything she knew.

And then the Aurors had arrived. Within weeks she was sent to Azkaban where she spent fourteen miserable years.

She smiled as the elevator doors opened revealing the fourth floor. The one good thing though, was that she was now out of Azkaban, and the Longbottoms . . . well they were still here.

Of course, Alice would soon be taking a vacation.

"What are you doing here? Only family's allowed up here . . ."

"_Avada Kedavra_," Bellatrix said haphazardly. Silly little healers. They were always the easiest to take down. They knew absolutely nothing about defensive magic.

Bellatrix felled three more before moving toward the curtain at the end of the room. Before she could reach it, however, it was thrown back and she found herself staring at the point of a wand.

Behind the wand was a very angry boy, eyes flashing.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," he growled.

Bellatrix's face broke into a wicked smile. "Why, Neville Longbottom. How are you? But more importantly, how's Mum and Dad?"

* * *

**A/N**: Yeah, I ripped that line off a bit from OOTP, but I can't help it, I just love the way Helena delivers it. I left out the "Better now that they're about to be avenged" though . . . I thought that would be too much. Oh, I'm sorry? Are you angry about the cliffhanger? Don't worry, I'll update much sooner this time. The writer's block is gone and the ideas are flowing. So, I've basically been writing this chapter over several months, so it may have come off as a little disjointed, so any feedback would be great. Once again, SO sorry for the wait. I'll be better from now on. I promise. 


	9. Chapter 9: Mind Manipulation

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: I would have had this chapter up sooner, but I wasn't happy with it, so have been trying to rework it, but no matter what I do I just don't like it. So, I'm going to put it up and move on, and hopefully you guys will like it more than I do.

**Rebecca Lynn**: Ha ha. No, Jo didn't kidnap me, but it sure would have been cool if she had. :)

**storylover1992**: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I hope you like this one, too.

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: I'm sorry that last chapter wasn't what you expected. I don't really know what you expected to happen though. I know big exciting things happened at Godric's Hollow in DH, but I had the story planned out before I read that, so I'm still sticking to my plot. That being said, wait for the next chapter. ;) P.S. Yay Ron/Hermione:)

**LilyJames addict**: I'm glad you liked that line . . . or you know, hated it. Ha ha. I really like writing Bellatrix though. She's so fun . . . and you know, crazy.

**Bahzad**: I promise not to leave you guys hanging. Even if I go away for a while, I will always come back and finish. :)

* * *

Chapter 9: Mind Manipulation

Before Neville's friends had found out about his parents, he only ever visited them during Christmas time, but ever since Harry and the others had stumbled upon him at St. Mungo's he had taken to visiting them whenever he had the chance. That day his Gran had accused him of being ashamed of his parents, and that wasn't true, but in a way he was afraid of them, which is why he didn't visit them as much as he should. But not anymore. During the summer holidays he tried to visit them at least once a week.

It was about a week before he was supposed to head back to Hogwarts, so he had decided to stay late to spend some more time with his parents since he wouldn't see them again until the Winter Holidays. He had been getting ready to go when he had heard screaming. He had quickly rushed his mother and father into their bathroom and, pulling out his wand, pushed aside the curtain that gave them privacy.

He was more than a little shocked to see Bellatrix Lestrange standing in front of him. The shock was quickly replaced by pure, blinding hatred.

He ignored her jibe about his parents, and attacked.

The wicked smile on her face was quickly changed to a look of surprise as Neville's curse caught her off guard and she was thrown back.

She recovered almost instantly though and Neville found himself against a wall unable to move.

"Wittle baby Longbottom has learned how to play, I see. Taking lessons from Potter?"

Neville could only manage a growl, as Bellatrix had him in a magical choke hold. He could see the madness in her eyes as he felt his throat constrict even more. Slowly everything started fading to black.

Then as suddenly as the constriction had started, it stopped. He fell to the floor in a heap and looked up to see Bellatrix lying on the ground, both hands clutching her head. Above her, Neville was shocked to see his mother, holding a very heavy flower pot.

For a moment, he stared up into her eyes and he saw something he had never seen before. Recognition. In that moment, he knew that his mother wasn't just looking at him, she was actually seeing him. But the moment passed, and the look in her eyes was replaced by the same vacant, glossy look he had long ago resigned himself to accept.

Distracted so by the fact that he had just seen a glimpse of his actual mother, Neville did not notice that Bellatrix had regained her composure.

"The Dark Lord does not have time for this," she said, pulling an old sock out of her pocket.

A portkey, Neville realized too late, as Bellatrix grabbed a hold of his mother and the two of them disappeared, though not before Bellatrix left Neville with a chilling last message.

"I'm sure we'll meet again soon, Longbottom. And don't worry, The Dark Lord will take great care of your mother."

* * *

"If I have to stun you again, don't be surprised if I choose to use a more painful spell."

Harry rolled and fell off the couch he had been sleeping on. Waking up to Snape's voice was something he had never wanted to do. Waking up to an angry Snape was downright horrifying. However, after a moment he realized that Snape had to have been talking to Dung.

Hermione, having bolted upright at the sound of Snape's voice, seemed to have realized the same thing. She was shaking Ron, who was mumbling that he just needed five more minutes.

Aunt Petunia came running out of the kitchen. Much to Harry's amusement she was wearing an apron and had an eggbeater in her hand.

The door was kicked open, and the source of all the noise flew into the middle of the living room. Dung was tied and gagged, but that didn't stop him from making quite a racket.

When he looked up to see Harry, Hermione, and Ron he calmed a bit, then he looked at Petunia and went completely still.

While Harry had by now gotten used to people's reactions upon seeing his Aunt, he was a little surprised to see that reaction from Dung. Exactly how many people in the wizarding world did his Aunt know.

Petunia bent down and gently took the gag out of Dung's mouth, throwing a glare at Snape who just shrugged.

"Petunia . . . but . . . I don't understand," and then to Harry's absolute shock, and slight horror, Dung began to cry.

Petunia hugged him and quietly tried to shush him.

"You've heard? You've heard what they did to Amelia?" Dung said through his tears.

Petunia nodded and said, "Yes. I've heard. I am so sorry, Dung. I know how much you cared for her. We're going to stop these things from happening though. We won't lose anyone else we care about. But we need your help. I'm going to untie you now, and I know that you won't try to get away."

"Who's Amelia?" Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione. Ron shrugged, but Hermione looked as if she was trying to place the name. Harry had to admit that it did sound familiar.

"Petunia, I don't think you should trust this . . . miscreant. He's become nothing by a dirty, disgusting thief," Severus said.

Petunia stood and placed a hand on her hip, lips pursed, eyebrow raised. Harry had seen his Aunt angry many times in his life, but he had never seen her look like this. She looked downright . . . sassy.

"Dung has always had a bit of a kleptomania problem, but he has also always had a good heart. I trust him, and since he was able to get into Grimmauld place, he was clearly a member of the Order, which means that Dumbledore trusted him as well."

Snape looked like he was about to argue, when Petunia cut him off.

"People thought Dumbledore was downright batty for trusting you. I think you can count everyone in this room besides myself as having thought that at one point or another. But he had his reasons, as I'm sure he had his reasons for trusting Dung. Dumbledore trusted him. I trust him. End of story."

This time Snape did not try to argue. Harry was fairly certain that if he had, his Aunt would have drawn her wand for the first time in many years.

Aunt Petunia went back to untying Dung, and helped him up.

"Thank you, Petunia," Dung said, rubbing his wrists while glaring at Snape.

"Now, perhaps you can help us. We're looking for a locket that was at Grimmauld place. It was sealed shut and was marked with an ornate S . . ."

"Slytherin's sign," Dung interrupted Petunia.

Harry felt his heart beating faster and said, "You've seen it then? You have it?"

Dung shook his head and said, "No. When I realized that that locket had Slytherin's mark on it . . . I knew it was worth a lot. I sold it to Borgin and Burkes a couple of weeks ago."

Harry clenched his fists and called upon all of his restraint not to throttle Dung right then and there.

He was calling upon this strength from within when Hermione took two quick strides forward and slapped Dung soundly across the face.

"Hermione!" Petunia and Ron said at the same time, although Harry noticed that his Aunt's voice was reproachful while his best friend's was a mixture of shock and pride.

"Well, I'm sorry, but this . . . this . . . _reprobate_, has made an already difficult task near impossible."

"Nothing's impossible, Hermione, you know that better than anyone," Ron said.

"Well, let's suppose that one of us was able to just waltz into Knockturn Alley, which is ridiculous as Harry is the most recognizable wizard in the world, you and I have become fairly recognizable because of our relationship to him, Snape is either believed to be Dumbledore's murderer or I'm sure is known as a traitor amongst the death eaters by now, and Petunia . . ."

"I could go. It is very unlikely I would run into anyone who knew me well enough that when they saw me they would instantly know who I was. They might recognize me and have a feeling of having seen me before, but nothing more," Petunia said.

"Well even so . . . I can only imagine how much that locket is being sold for. It is priceless. Unless you propose we steal it, which could go so wrong in so many ways, and the last thing we want to do is to let Voldemort know . . ." Hermione trailed off as she saw Dung's ears perk up. "Well, you know!"

"What exactly do you want with Slytherin's locket?" Dung asked.

"That is none of your concern. What is your concern is that you are going to help us get it back," Snape said, a deadly gleam in his eyes.

Dung threw his hands up and said, "You can't make me do anything. Well, okay I suppose you could. But if you would just tell me what is going on, I'd be much more apt to help willingly."

"I'm sorry Dung, but we can't tell you. I'm not even sure if you should be helping us at all," Harry said, wary of the idea of having Dung along, but knowing he was the best person to go about getting the locket back.

"Well, I'm not going to help if you won't tell me . . ."

"Dung," Petunia said, placing a hand on his arm, "we can't tell you what exactly we're doing, but we can tell you that it is important to destroying Voldemort. He took your Mum and Dad from you. He killed Amelia. Just trust us and know that if you help, you will be helping to avenge those people that you loved."

"She's good," Ron whispered to Hermione and Harry, making Harry smile. She certainly had a way of manipulating people without actually being manipulative, because she did genuinely care.

"Okay. I'll help, but don't think this conversation is over," Dung said.

"Fine. Fletcher is helping. That's decided. Now we have to come up with a plan, and soon. You have already stayed in one place long enough. The Dark Lord has many magical items at his fingertips. It's only a matter of time before he figures out where we are. We should move tomorrow to get the locket and then be on our way," Snape said, highlighting a fear Harry had not yet let himself focus on.

"Okay, so any ideas?" Harry asked.

* * *

"He's a liability. Whether you believe it or not, he is," Snape said to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Petunia later that night.

They had decided as a group that Petunia and Dung would go to Knockturn Alley the next morning, Petunia posing as Dung's new, very rich, very demanding girlfriend. The plan was for Dung to bewitch the merchant into believing that he had been given the money required to buy the locket. They knew it was a risky plan, but it was the only one they had. Now the five original members of their group were discussing what they should do after they retrieved the locket.

"We're not discussing this Severus. I trust him. I understand that he cannot come with us on the rest of the journey, nor do I really want him to know much more about what we're doing. He can help us in this step though, so let it go and tell us what's happening next," Petunia said, leaving no room for argument.

Snape grumbled and crossed his arms in such a way that Harry almost laughed. It was unnerving how much his Aunt affected the sour professor. He held back his urge to laugh and steered the conversation back on track.

"Okay, we don't have much time. I want to keep this conversation as short as possible, just in case Dung should wake up. The question is what do we do next? We're going to Knockturn Alley anyway, should we look into finding some books on Horcruxes while we're there?" Harry asked.

Snape waved his hand and said, "That would just be a waste of time. Those books are not just sold anywhere, not even in a place like Knockturn Alley. The only place I know of that should most certainly have at least a couple of books would be Durmstrang, in the Dark Arts professor's personal library."

"Durmstrang? Do we really have to go there?" Ron said, a sour note in his voice.

Harry grinned, knowing exactly what bothered Ron about the school.

"Yes, Ron, if that's where the books are, that's where we need to go," Hermione said shortly, clearly not as amused as Harry by his reluctance.

"Okay, fine, so we'll go to Durmstrang for the books. Should we get them first, or should we go after the other Horcruxes?"

They all turned toward Snape. Harry hated leaving him in the position to make the decisions, but he was the one who knew where the Horcruxes were, and so he was the one they had to follow.

"Well, one of them is located in Loch Ness . . ."

"Excuse me, did you say _in_ Loch Ness, as in underwater?" Hermione asked.

"All I said was that I found where they were located, I never said they would then be easy to retrieve," Snape said with a sneer.

"But . . . but . . . Loch Ness is the second largest loch in Scotland. It's nearly forty kilometers long and there are parts that are more than two hundred meters deep! How in the world are we going to locate a Horcrux in that," Hermione went on, barely even hearing Snape, and certainly not registering his sneer.

"Miss Granger. Once again you are a fountain that spews forth knowledge that no one asked for. If you are quite finished . . ."

"Severus!" Petunia said, as Hermione colored.

Harry gave his Aunt a pointed glance and said, "Oh that's just Snape. He's been much worse in the past. Honestly that was his nice way of saying to shut up. Great teacher that one. Steller."

Petunia pursed her lips and said very quietly to Snape, "We'll talk about this later."

It looked as if Snape was doing everything he could not to roll his eyes. "If I may continue, as I've already stated one of the Horcruxes, is in Loch Ness, yes, that doesn't give us a great deal of information, but it's more than you had before. The other is located in Denbighshire. Ruthin to be exact."

"Wales?" Ron asked.

Snape nodded, clearly biting back a cutting remark after glancing at Petunia.

"Okay," Harry said, taking charge now that he had all of the information. "While I don't relish carrying around several pieces of Voldemort's soul, I think the best option is to get the Horcruxes, and then go to Durmstrang to get the books since the Horcruxes are here in Britain and Durmstrang is . . . well, I don't actually know where Durmstrang is."

Harry looked at Snape who shrugged his shoulders.

Ron looked shocked, "But you said the books would be there. How could you know the books would be there if you don't even know where the school is?"

"Because I know the Professors there and I know the type of schooling that goes on there. All I know is that it is in Eastern Europe somewhere. As you know there are many spells that protect Hogwarts. There are even more for Durmstrang. As far as I know, the only way to find it is to be shown by someone who already knows where it is, a student or teacher, and even then, once you leave, you will not remember the exact location."

Ron narrowed his eyes seeing where this conversation would be heading.

And on cue Hermione spoke up. "I'm sure Viktor would be more than happy to take us."

"Oh, I'm quite sure good old _Vicky_ would . . ."

"Ron, there is no need . . ."

" . . . don't know what you saw in him . . ."

Harry sat back as a bemused expression crossed his Aunt's face and an annoyed one settled onto Snape's.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show, guys. They could go on forever," Harry said.

"We still need to . . ." Snape started, but Harry cut him off.

"Tomorrow we go to Knockturn Alley, then Wales, Loch Ness, and I guess Bulgaria. Quidditch training is in full swing, so that's where Krum should be. I know they aren't concrete plans, but I think it's the best we're going to do," Harry said, still watching his best friends have an argument they had had at least a dozen times before.

Neither the two arguing teenagers nor the three spectators noticed the kitchen door closing quietly as the man who had been listening to the conversation slowly slunk back to the living room, a scowl on his face. As he fell asleep he began to come up with his own plan.

* * *

"If anything goes wrong, anything at all, come straight back. We'll come up with a different plan to get the locket," Harry was telling Dung and Petunia as they prepared to leave.

His Aunt was dressed in very extravagant dress robes that his Mum had had in her closet. Aunt Petunia had actually been very surprised to find them there, but figured she must have bought them for some sort of special occasion, because normally she just wore muggle jeans and sweaters.

"Don't worry, Petunia, you look the part, and I know you can pull off the attitude. If you're convincing, Borgin will believe that you have the money to buy the locket and the charm will be easier to cast," Snape said, taking her hand.

Harry tried to suppress a shudder. Even if he was beginning to trust Snape more and more, that didn't mean he wanted to see him being . . . nice.

"And you," Snape said, his tone changing dramatically, "we are trusting you, _I_ am trusting you to keep Petunia safe. You apparate her safely back here if there's even the slightest hint of danger."

Dung rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, yes. We've heard it all . . . and now we'll be going."

And without anymore preamble, Dung grabbed onto Petunia's arm and they both disapparated with a loud crack.

"He really needs to work on doing that quietly," Harry said, rubbing his ears.

"Give me your invisibility cloak," Snape said suddenly.

"What? No." Harry said, looking at Snape strangely.

"Potter, now is not the time. I'm following them to make sure Petunia is kept safe. I do not trust Dung, and I could give a damn if you do."

"I'm not giving you my cloak," Harry said, not budging an inch.

"Potter!" Snape said, his voice growing louder and more agitated.

"Fine. If you're really that worried, I'll go to Knockturn Alley and follow them under the cloak, but I am not letting you use it."

"_You?_" Snape said incredulously. "What are you going to do if things go wrong? You wouldn't know how to handle yourself."

Harry narrowed his eyes and said, "I have been more than able to handle myself in the past. I have faced Voldemort and survived many times. I'm pretty sure I could face a store proprietor."

And before Snape could argue his point further, Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out of the magically expanded pocket he always kept it in, threw it over his shoulders and Apparated away.

* * *

Harry looked around orienting himself. This was only his third time in Knockturn Alley, and yet he was quickly able to figure out where he was. He looked through the crowd and instantly spotted Dung and his Aunt moving toward Borgin and Burkes.

He followed them, trying to push aside his annoyance with Snape. He couldn't believe that the man was so presumptuous. His cloak was one of his most prized possessions. It had belonged to his father and it was one of the first real Christmas presents he had ever been given . . . from Dumbledore no less. It would be a cold day in Hell before Harry would let Snape get his grubby hands on it.

Still, he supposed Snape's concern for his Aunt Petunia was somewhat touching. Disturbing, yes, but also touching.

He quickly caught up with his Aunt and Dung, who were walking quite slowly to preserve Petunia's air of nobility. On the one hand, Harry was a little surprised that Petunia was doing such a good job with this role she was playing, but on the other he supposed that the spell had made her act like she was better than everyone else for years. Some of that had to still be inside of her.

For a moment, he thought about letting them know that he was there with them, but decided against it. He thought Snape was just being paranoid, but still, it wouldn't hurt to have the element of surprise if it turned out he was right about Dung.

"Ah, Mundungus Fletcher! What a wonderful surprise, do you have any more relics to sell to me today?"

"'Fraid not, Borgin my good man, I'm actually here because my new lady," he started motioning with his head toward Petunia who gave Borgin a tight-lipped, not at all sincere smile, "is quite angry with me for selling that locket, and we'd like to buy it back."

"Well Mundungus, I'm quite sorry, but you know I must sell things for more than I purchased them, and well, that locket is going for more than I believe you could afford. Could I interest you in anything else, Miss . . ." Borgin said turning to Petunia waiting for her to supply her name.

"Lestrange," Petunia said in a quite convincing French accent, surprising Harry, though Harry noted, not Dung. Clearly they had talked about what name she would give when asked. It was risky, but if Borgin believed it, it would most certainly be effective.

Borgin paused a moment, surveying Petunia closly.

"Well, you are certainly not Rodolphus or Rabastan's wife, as I've met both of them, and I wasn't aware they had a sister . . ." Borgin said, failing to keep his suspicion out of his voice.

Petunia drew herself up further and said, "Not that it is any of your business, but I am a distant cousin. I am a member of the purer side of the family, the side that chooses to maintain it's French roots rather than muddying it up with all this British blood."

Harry had to put a hand in his mouth to keep from laughing. Petunia was quite good at playing the part of a snob. She had just managed to insult one of the purest blood lines in the wizarding world. He was happy to see that Dung was playing his part quite well also, looking hurt and at the same time eager to please. Clearly Petunia's "character" was not supposed to see Dung as any kind of boyfriend, but Dung's "character" was trying desperately to impress her.

The affect of her snobbery was immediate as Borgin immediately began groveling.

"My apologies, Miss. You have to understand people come in here often trying to claim blood purity, thinking that will mean I will give them a deal . . ."

Petunia cut him off with a wave of her hand, "I am looking for no such deals. Money is no object. I just want the locket, regardless of how much it is. May I see it?"

Borgin's eyes lit up at her declaration, and immediately hurried to the back to retrieve the locket.

Harry recognized it immediately when he saw it. It was the same locket from the pensieve memories. The same locket that they could not open at Grimmauld Place. There it was, a piece of Voldemort's soul just waiting to be destroyed.

Petunia pursed her lips, reaching out to take it without even asking first. The look on Borgin's face was a mixture of anger and awe, but he did let her pick it up and examine it.

"How do I know that this is not just a clever copy. It _looks_ like the locket legend describes, but how am I to know for sure?" Petunia asked, placing the locket back on the velvet pillow Borgin had had it on.

"I assure you, Miss, and Mundungus can vouch for this, the price that I paid for it proves that it is real. I would never part with so much money for a copy, even a brilliant one," Borgin said.

"Well, you could have been fooled, just as Mundungus could have . . ."

Borgin, clearly offended, said, "I have been in this business for many years, Miss, and I can assure you, I am very good at what I do. This locket is authentic, which is why it is priced at fifty thousand galleons."

"Fifty_thousand_ galleons?" Dung said incredulously. "You could buy a house with that kind of money! Plus, I sold it to you for just five thousand galleons!"

"It is not my fault that you did not know the true value of the locket. I assure you, I will easily be able to find buyers who are willing to pay the amount I have set. If you are not, then perhaps I can interest you in something else . . ."

"There will be no need," Petunia said imperiously, "Fifty thousand galleons will be fine. Will a magical transfer be sufficient."

At this moment, Harry watched the two of them closely, because this was the point where things could go terribly wrong. Aunt Petunia pulled out her wand and waved it, doing absolutely nothing, but at the same time, Dung surreptitiously cast his own spell. If it worked, Borgin would think that Aunt Petunia had just conjured a magical piece of paper that when signed by both parties would transfer the written amount from one vault in Gringotts, or any other magical bank, to the other.

Harry held his breath as he waited for Borgin to react. After a moment, Borgin reached out and grabbed nothing from Petunia's hand. Clearly, he had seen a piece of paper. He moved to his counter and began writing on a normal piece of paper that had been sitting there. He wrote down the amount and signed his name, handing it to Petunia to sign.

She took it with a smile and signed. Harry craned his neck to see the first name his Aunt had come up with. Capella Lestrange.

Borgin was handing over the locket when everything went terribly, terribly wrong.

Just as Petunia was about to grab the locket, Dung pulled out his wand and leveled it on Petunia.

"Not so fast, luv, leave that locket right where it is," Dung said, motioning with his wand for Petunia to step away.

She looked at him with hurt shining in her eyes, but she listened and took a step away from Borgin.

Borgin, looking quite confused, looked from Dung to Petunia and then looked down at the piece of paper in front of him. The spell Dung had cast broke as he looked at the ordinary piece of paper and within a blink of an eye, he too had his wand trained on Petunia.

This couldn't be happening. Harry could not believe that Dung had turned on them. He couldn't believe that they had been so close to having the locket, and now . . .

There was nothing he could do. If he stunned Dung, Borgin would almost certainly react and stun his Aunt, or worse. Same thing was true if he stunned Borgin, though he was fairly certain Dung would only stun and not fire to hurt. Yet, he would most certainly figure out where the random stunning spell had come from. He needed a way to incapacitate both Dung and Borgin at the same time.

There was nothing he could do. Unless . . .

Before he could lose his nerve, Harry quickly pointed his wand at Borgin, and concentrating like he had never concentrated before on performing a nonverbal spell, Harry thought _Imperio_ and waved his wand toward Borgin.

He realized it had worked instantly and shouted, "Stun Dung!"

Before Dung could react the action had been completed and Borgin stood still once more, waiting for more instructions. Harry whipped off his cloak and moved toward his Aunt. She pulled him into a hug and said, "Thank goodness you were here. I can't believe it . . . I can't believe Dung would do that."

Harry returned her hug and then moved to the counter, grabbing the locket and putting it around his neck. Whatever happened, he wanted to make sure that they left with the locket. He also picked up the piece of paper, crumpled it and put it in his pocket.

Once he had secured the locket, he moved toward Dung, picking up his wand and handing it to Petunia. "I want to know why he did it."

And before Petunia could even try to stop him, Harry had revived Dung.

Dung didn't dare try to make an escape with Harry standing over him, his wand in his face.

"I should have known. Though I have to say, I was expecting Snape," Dung said, still seated on the floor.

"He wanted to come. I came instead. And you should thank your lucky stars I did. I highly doubt Snape would have thought twice about killing someone who pointed a wand at my Aunt. In case you haven't noticed, he does seem to actually have a heart, and it appears to belong to her."

Dung snorted and said, "That man is incapable of love, as you well know. Now let's just cut to the chase. Why are you after it?"

"After what, Dung?" Petunia asked, the hurt still evident in her voice.

"The cup Petunia. Why are you all after the cup?"

Petunia looked confused, but Harry knew exactly what he was talking about. Petunia wasn't as familiar with exactly what the Horcruxes were, but Harry had thought of nothing else since Dumbledore had told him . . . the locket, the cup, the snake, something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's . . . which had turned out to be the brooch. There was only one cup Dung could be talking about, and yet, Harry could not figure out how he knew about it.

"How do you know we're looking for the cup? How do you even know about the cup?"

"I heard you talking last night . . . that's how I know you know about it. And as for the second question, I could ask you the same thing!" Dung said, getting more agitated.

"We never said anything about the cup. We're all very careful not to talk about what they actually are," Harry said, confused.

"Yes, I know. You just kept calling it a Horcrux. Whatever that is . . ."

"But then how do you know . . ."

"Never mind how I know. You have no rights to that cup! It is not yours to take! It was never anyone's to take!" Dung said getting to his feet.

"Okay Dung, here's the deal, I will tell you exactly what's going on and why we're looking for the cup if you will tell me how you know about it, and what you know about it. Once we get back to Godric's Hollow," Harry said, knowing he was taking a great leap of faith, but at the same time, trusting that his belief that Dung was on their side was not misguided.

"Fine," Dung said, "I take it you're not going to give me my wand back."

Harry shook his head. "Not until we're back."

"What are we going to do about him?" Petunia asked, pointing at Borgin who was still standing behind the counter, a blank expression on his face.

"I don't know. The spell won't last forever and we can't have him telling anyone that we were here. We can't risk it getting back to Voldemort," Harry said. "I could try a memory charm, but I've never performed one before."

"Even if I had my wand, I couldn't do it. I was always rubbish about it," Dung said, looking a bit guilty. Harry knew he didn't know exactly what they were up to, but he seemed to be realizing that it was important and that he had almost blown everything.

"Make him do it," Petunia said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"A wizard like Borgin knows how to perform memory charms. I'm sure he's used them to acquire many of the objects in this store. You already have him Imperiused, which I don't really approve of I might add, so you might as well take it all the way and make him erase his own memory," Petunia said.

"Is that even possible?" Harry asked.

"Because he's Imperiused, his mind is unaware of his actions making the act of performing a memory charm on himself the same as performing it on anyone else. If you tell him to do it, and he knows how to do it, he will be able to do it," Petunia explained, showing a grasp of magical theory that he know even Hermione would be proud of.

"Okay," Harry said turning toward Borgin, "Cast a memory charm on yourself so that you won't remember anything that's taken place since these two walked into your store."

Borgin picked up his wand and performed the charm.

He stood there with the same blank expression on his face. Harry pulled Petunia and Dung out of the store and lifted the Imperius Curse. Borgin seemed to come out of a fog. He looked around and then pulled out a binder and began taking notes as he walked around the store.

"I think it worked," Harry said. "Let's get back. We have a lot to talk about."

Petunia and Dung both grabbed onto Harry and the three Apparated back to Godric's Hollow.

* * *

It was foggy. And there was an uncomfortable feeling in the air. An unfamiliar feeling. Turning, he saw a young boy and girl sharing a kiss. A little further past that were three girls sitting on a bed, laughing and tossing candy back and forth to one another. A man and woman being married. A graduation ceremony. A woman holding a baby in her arms. The images moved slowly past him and then sped up. They blinked in and out of existence. There was no pattern, nothing to distinguish one image from the next. They just . . . flowed. The only thing that was consistent was the feeling in the air.

Voldemort felt as if his skin might crawl right off his body. He had entered Alice's mind using a spell that not many people knew of, mostly because it had been created by a woman shortly before she had been killed, and she had never had a chance to share it.

After Lily's death, and Voldemort's downfall, Rookwood had taken all of Lily's research and hidden it somewhere safe. Soon after that he had been discovered as the Ministry spy and had been put in Azkaban. After his escape he had presented the files as a gift to Voldemort. It had been one of the greatest things any of his Death Eaters had ever done. Of course that didn't save him from Voldemort's wrath when he had made mistake after mistake in other instances.

But because of his quick thinking Voldemort now had access to magic that no one else would ever have access to, unless another witch as brilliant as Lily came along to create the spells.

Still, even knowing how to do the spell didn't let Voldemort know exactly how to control it. He was in Alice's mind, but it was difficult to navigate. He had been inside many minds in his life, but this was different than Legilimency. He had no control here, no way to sort out exactly what he was looking for, but at the same time, he couldn't be blocked from entering the mind, and once he was inside, no spell could bring him back out. He had as much time as necessary to explore.

Even though there was no order to the images floating around him, he did notice that the further he walked, the darker everything became. Soon he could barely see a meter in front of him. The feeling in the air was changing as well. Voldemort began to smile as he recognized the feeling. Sadness, anger, fear . . . emotions that Voldemort knew well, or at least recognized in others when he caused them.

Glancing around he could barely make out the images, which had begun to match the emotions. Funeral scenes were plentiful. He could hear screaming and crying all around him.

And then there was a wall. Had he reached the end of Alice's mind . . . could a mind even have an end? He was unable to ponder this question as he saw a glowing light approaching him from behind the wall, because, as he noticed now, it was made of glass.

There in front of him, light emanating from her body, was Alice Longbottom. And this wasn't a memory Alice like those which had surrounded him as he had made his journey, this was the Alice that was currently lying unconscious on a dungeon floor . . . and she was locked behind a glass wall in her own mind.

Her face was thin and worn, her eyes large in her face, and her hair was white as snow and wispy. Her mind's image of herself was exactly as her actual image, except for the fact that here her eyes were sharp and alert, and filled with anger.

She slammed her hands against the wall, and Voldemort laughed.

"So this is what becomes of one when they are driven into insanity. Trapped in your own mind. And surrounded by your worst memories," Voldemort said, waving his arms around to indicate the images that had become brighter and easier to see now that Alice had approached.

She kept her eyes averted from those images though and stared only at Voldemort.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Voldemort could not hear her. The glass she was behind was impenetrable, it seemed. Yet he was fairly certain she could hear him.

"Do you know why I am here, Alice?" Voldemort asked.

She glared harder, banging her hands against the glass wall once more.

"How frustrating it must be Alice. Though you aren't always trapped there, are you?"

At this comment, she stopped and stared at him, thus letting Voldemort know that she could, in fact, hear him.

"Ah yes, Bellatrix told me how you attacked her . . . to save your son. You took control . . . which makes me think you aren't always trapped behind that wall, are you?"

Alice's entire demeanor had changed at the mention of her son. Several new images popped up. Two images interested him in particular. Both featured the Longbottom boy and Bellatrix, though in one he was just a baby, and the other had to have been a memory of just the other night. Alice tried to look away, but kept looking back as she watched her baby being tortured, and then watched his teenage self being choked.

"He seems like a nice boy, Alice. I know Bella is quite looking forward to meeting him again."

He had her attention once more as she banged against the wall again. He couldn't hear her, but he had a pretty good idea of what she was saying.

"That kind of language is not appropriate at all, Alice, my dear. Now all you need do is grant me access to a certain memory of yours, and I can promise that no one will ever hurt your son."

Her reply was a rude hand gesture.

"Very well. I will find it on my own then, and when I've discovered the spell, I will change history just as your dear sweet Lily did, and perhaps I will create a history in which it will be that much easier to kill your son!" Voldemort said, his anger rising. He was not used to being disrespected and being unable to dole out a punishment in retaliation.

To Voldemort's surprise, this declaration was met with silent laughter from Alice, rather than more anger. He could see her laughing . . . and then with no warning, he could hear her as well.

The glass wall had disappeared.

Alice seemed surprised as well, but took the opportunity to say one thing.

"You will never find that spell. Lily locked it away in a part of my mind that you cannot access . . . the same part that I am now locked away in as well, thanks to your dear Bellatrix!"

Then as quickly as the wall had disappeared, it reappeared once more.

"Oh believe me Alice, I have ways of unlocking a mind, and I can promise all of them will be painful. And even if that does not work, it will be no matter . . . you were just a participant. Petunia was the object. I didn't want to go after her yet, but if I have to, I will, and I can get the spell from her mind quite easily, I'm sure. All I need do is find her."

Voldemort could see that Alice was laughing again, but she stopped suddenly as she stared at something over his shoulder. He turned and was met with an image unlike any of the others. Unlike the others which were surrounded by a fog, this image was clear as crystal.

Petunia was sitting in a living room that looked very familiar to Voldemort. Snape, Potter, Potter's friends Weasley and Granger, and a man Voldemort didn't know were all with her.

This wasn't a memory . . . this was happening right now.

Voldemort looked at Alice to see that her eyes were open in horror. She closed them, seemingly trying to make the image go away. Clearly she hadn't meant for this to appear and had no idea how to make it go away.

"Interesting . . . very interesting. It seems that even if I cannot unlock that spell from your mind, you can still prove useful. You know, the last time I was in that living room, I murdered your friend James . . . and then soon after I murdered dear Lily."

Alice screamed words that Voldemort could not hear as she banged against her prison, but Voldemort turned and vanished leaving her alone in her mind once more.

Voldemort came out of the trance he had been in and stood up.

It had been many years, but Voldemort knew it was time. It was time to return to the site of his defeat.

Perhaps this time, things would be different.

* * *

**A/N**: Blah. Like I said at the beginning, I didn't like this chapter. I rewrote that last part like four different times. The next chapter will be better, I promise. 


	10. Chapter 10: Missing Passengers

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Sorry for the wait again guys. Over a month. I really do try to do quicker updates, but it is really difficult with real life. I work two jobs, one of which is teaching, so it's really like having three jobs. I've been thinking about starting a yahoo group so I can at least keep you guys updated on my progress in between long updates, and it will also give me a chance to edit and rework GUFT and post it somewhere else. But that's just an idea, I want to find out what you guys would think, so let me know in a review and if it seems like a popular idea I'll do it and post the link on my profile. Anywho, onto the review responses and the actual chapter which I feel is MUCH better than the last one. :)

**Rebecca Lynn**: Ha ha, you think you're bad wanting to meet fictional characters. I have dreams about them! Sorry for making you wait a while on this chapter. Hopefully it's worth it.

**Bahzad**: Aw, thanks! I think you're nuts, but thanks! And the image popping into Alice's mind is explained in this chapter . . . sort of. It's not specifically about Alice . . . but you'll get it when you read it.

**Ecstace**: You and I are few and far between when it comes to our Peter love. I think that's the reason I most wish Jo would decide to write at least a little about the MWPP time, just so I could see how she would write him. And I love Neville, too. You'll be very happy with the ending of this chapter and what it implies for this story. Thank you for the positive feedback on the last chapter, too. I'm sure it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, because I'm my worst critic, but it certainly wasn't up to my standards. This chapter, I think, is back to the good. I hope you like it.

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: Sorry it took a while. This chapter does have a bit of excitement, but hopefully you're not too disappointed, because it may not be as exciting as you were expecting. Got to save something for the finale! But some good stuff does happen. I think so anyway. :-)

And now the chapter . . .

* * *

Chapter 10: Missing Passengers

Hermione paced back and forth waiting for Harry and Petunia to return. She knew that Harry had been in loads more dangerous situations in the past and had always survived, but she couldn't help but worry still. After all, it was Harry.

"Hermione, calm down. They'll be fine. They haven't even been gone a half hour yet and you're carrying on like they've been gone for three days," Ron said from his seat on the couch. He was looking through_The Noble Sport of Warlocks_ which he had found in the bookcase.

Leave it to Ron to bypass every useful book he could be reading and choose a book on Quidditch, Hermione thought while shaking her head.

Snape had been sitting in a chair staring at the grandfather clock in the corner when he suddenly looked up.

"They're coming back," he said.

"Don't be silly . . . how could you possibly know . . ." Hermione started, but was cut off as Harry, Petunia, and Dung all appeared in the living room in front of her with a quiet pop.

She was about to ask Snape how he could have possibly known they were arriving, when she noticed that Harry was pointing his wand at Dung and motioning for him to sit down.

Ron and Snape seemed to notice this at the same time. Snape moved to Petunia to ask her if she was alright as Ron looked at Harry with a question in his eyes.

"We got the locket. Dung here just has some explaining to do," Harry said, answering Ron's unasked question.

"Before I explain anything, I want to know what you want with the cup," Dung said with a surprising amount of gall for someone who was being held at wandpoint, Hermione thought.

"You told him about the cup?" Snape asked, turning toward Harry.

"Of course not. What do you take me for? He already knew about the cup, or at least that we're looking for it. He knows nothing more than that," Harry said.

Dung snorted. "Nothing more. I know more about that cup than you could ever hope to know about it. It belongs to my family!"

Like everyone else in the room, Hermione looked at Dung in shock.

"Nice try Dung, but that cup belongs to the descendants of Hufflepuff. Harry told us so, and Dumbledore told him," Ron said with a smile, pleased to be the first to shut down Dung's lies.

Dung looked outraged and was about to reply when Petunia spoke up. "Dung_is_ a descendant of Hufflepuff."

"What?!?!" Hermione, Ron, and Harry all said together.

Snape looked like he wanted to bang his head against a wall. Repeatedly.

"His mother was a direct descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. Of course, I had forgotten," Snape said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Well it's nice that you could forget, but I could never. After all, it was for that reason that she died, well for that and for marrying a muggleborn wizard," Dung said angrily.

"Your mother was Helga Smith?" Hermione asked suddenly.

Dung nodded as Ron looked at Hermione strangely.

"How did you know that?"

"The book on Wizard genealogy. It must have been written before Dung was born though, because it only mentions that Helga Smith, one of the last descendants of Helga Hufflepuff married Hengist Fletcher, a muggleborn wizard."

"And you never put two and two together that Dung and this Hengist guy had the same last name?" Ron asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well the Smiths, they're practically wizard royalty. Anyone who can be traced back to the founders of Hogwarts are, and well . . . I mean . . . it's Dung," Hermione said, quietly trailing off.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione, I've done everything I can to distance myself from that name and all the horror it brought into my life . . . but that cup. It belongs in the family. Why do you want it?"

"Wait. You're right, it does belong in the family, and that's why it belonged to Hepzibah Smith before it was stolen," Harry said, dropping a fact to see exactly what Dung knew about it.

Dung snorted once more and said, "Crazy Aunt Hepzy . . . that cup belonged to her as much as it belongs to you guys. She died long before I was born, but that didn't mean my parents didn't tell me all about her. She would tell anyone and everyone about her ties to the Hufflepuff line, but the fact is that she doesn't have a drop of Hufflepuff blood in her. She married into the line, married my great uncle and after his 'mysterious' death carried on as if she had been born a Smith, collecting every family heirloom we had ever had. If she had been a true Smith that cup would never have been stolen from her. She would have sensed that it was gone . . ."

Dung trailed off from a rant he seemed to have been holding in for years. Clearly even if he had distanced himself from the family, he had not distanced himself from their feelings toward this particular relation.

But the point that he had trailed off interested Hermione.

She moved toward Dung and asked quietly, "Where's the cup, Dung?"

Snape shook his head and said, "Silly girl, we know where the cup is. I've already told you."

Hermione waved her hand at Snape, surprising him enough to quiet him.

"We know where it used to be. Dung knows where it is now. Don't you Dung? Please, we can't tell you why we need it, but we can tell you that it is very important, that it is essential to bringing down Voldemort. We will return the cup to you as soon as we're finished with it, we promise," Hermione said, looking intently into Dung's eyes.

Dung was looking at her strangely, but seemed to be relenting.

"You won't be able to use it, you know? The cups powers only work for the Hufflepuff bloodline . . ."

"We're not interested in it's powers. Well . . . I would be, just for educational purposes, if you would ever want to share that information with me . . . but no, we need it for a different reason entirely. Please, help us Dung," Hermione said.

Slowly Dung looked up and caught Petunia's eye.

"She kind of reminds you of Amelia, doesn't she?"

Petunia smiled and nodded.

Hermione wondered once again who exactly Amelia was, but didn't have the time to dwell on it as she realized that Dung was going to help them.

"I'll need my wand," Dung said, standing up.

"Tell us how you came across the cup first," Harry said, surprising everyone in the room. Though Hermione noted that Snape was giving an approving nod.

"Harry . . ." Petunia started.

"No, he could have ruined everything back at Knockturn Alley. I'm not just going to give him my trust again, tragic past or no. I want confirmation that he even has the cup to begin with," Harry said.

"Fine," Dung said, putting his hands up in the air. "I'll tell you. As a member of the Hufflepuff bloodline I have always been able to sense the cup, even if I didn't realize it. Thing is though that the older the line got, the harder it was to sense it. That's why none of my relatives were able to find it after it was stolen from Aunt Hepzy. You have to be pretty near it to sense it. Well one time a few years ago, business took me to Wales, and while I was there, I decided to visit the ancient home of my famous ancestor. See, I may have tried to distance myself from the bloodline, but history is still history . . ."

"But no one knows exactly where Hufflepuff lived . . . or where any of the founders lived. It's been lost to history," Hermione interrupted.

"She is quite the little know-it-all, just like Amelia," Dung said with a smile at Petunia. Hermione blushed and closed her mouth and Dung continued. "Yes, you're right. The whereabouts were lost to history, except for those in the bloodline. It was a secret passed down through the centuries. I'm sure even Aunt Hepzy knew where Helga's old home was as I'm sure my Uncle shared the information with her. Anyway, it's protected by old magic and only someone who knows it's there would be able to find it. Well, imagine my surprise when I went to have a look and suddenly I could sense the cup. It was there in Helga Huffelpuff's old home, and protected by all kinds of spells. I don't know who put it there, but they didn't want it taken away. Whoever it was either didn't know, or didn't count on the fact that a Hufflepuff descendant would find it though. No spell can keep that cup from it's true owner."

"So you've had the cup in your possession for a few years now?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and if you give me my wand right now, I can conjure it for you," Dung said.

Hermione thought that it looked like Harry believed him. She was pretty sure he was about to hand over the other man's wand. However, she was never able to find out if that's what was going to happen, because at that moment, Voldemort apparated into the middle of the Potters' living room.

* * *

Harry knew Voldemort was coming before he even appeared. It was only a split second, not enough time for him to properly warn anyone, but enough time for him to react.

He was very surprised that his scar had not warned him. Of course, his scar was no longer the barometer of Voldemort's emotions that it used to be. Still he would have thought having the creature standing directly in front of him would have warranted at least a twinge. But nothing. What had reacted, however, was the locket. He had felt it burn against his chest before leaping as if trying to escape the chain holding it around his neck. Somehow Harry had known what this meant, and it had given him enough time to draw his wand.

As soon as Voldemort had appeared in front of him he had cast a spell. He wasn't even entirely sure what the spell was, he had just cast the first thing to come to mind. Voldemort had cast a spell as well, and the two ricocheted off one another, causing everyone else to duck for cover. Harry was pleased to see that Hermione had immediately grabbed a hold of Petunia while Ron had grabbed Dung and Apparated out of there. He was not pleased to notice that Voldemort had clearly aquired a new wand.

"Honestly Potter, after what happened in the graveyard did you really think I would continue to use a wand that would prove useless against you? I borrowed this from a kind soul," Voldemort said, a sardonic smile on his lips.

Harry knew that whoever that wand had once belonged to, he or she was long gone now.

Snape also had his wand out and was making no moves to Apparate away. Voldemort's eyes flicked to him for only a moment before settling back on Harry.

"For once Potter, I am actually not interested in you. Hand over your Aunt and you will be free to go . . . for now," Voldemort said.

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but before he could he found himself face down on the floor, a curse flying over his head. Snape had pushed him out of the way of Voldemort's curse and was now engaged in a dangerous duel.

He watched in awe as the two wizards dueled. It was even more amazing to watch than it had been to watch Dumbledore and Voldemort at the Ministry. Snape was clearly not afraid to use dark magic. For every evil curse that Voldemort sent Snape blocked and retaliated in kind. Harry could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as the power radiating in the air seemed to grow.

"You won't touch a hair on her head, Voldemort. Not as long as I live," Snape shouted, ducking another curse and sending a jet blue curse flying toward Voldemort.

The snake-like man easily deflected the curse and laughingly cried, "_Crucio_!"

Snape dove behind the couch to avoid the curse, but that didn't stop Voldemort's laughter.

"I should have known it was her. She's the reason you deserted me. I know that now. You were my most loyal servant . . . and all that time you were only pretending, only trying to protect her. You won't be able to protect her Severus. Not from me. You failed to protect Lily, and you'll fail in protecting her as well!"

Snape was still crouched behind the couch and Harry crawled his way over to him. He could barely see through the smoke in the room. The floor was covered in glass from windows and mirrors that had been broken. The stench of burning wood was all around them.

"We can't win this battle Snape. Not yet," Harry whispered.

"Stand up and fight me, Severus. Stop being a coward. Stand up and fight!"

Snape's face colored, and he looked about ready to stand.

"He'll kill you," Harry whispered urgently, "and I still need you. _She_ needs you."

Snape clutched his wand and looked about ready to leap to his feet, but instead he nodded, and raised his wand, Apparating away. Harry quickly followed suit, leaving a still laughing Voldemort behind.

Harry Apparated to Grimmauld Place without even thinking, somehow knowing that it was the only place they'd be safe.

* * *

He walked through the door and his vision was immediately obscured by a mane of bushy hair. Then, no sooner had Hermione released him, his Aunt pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank goodness, Harry. I was so worried. When you and Severus weren't immediately behind us . . . we were so afraid," Petunia said, sobbing into Harry's shoulder.

"We're fine Petunia, but we need to figure out what we're going to do next. We are in more danger than you may realize," Snape said, placing a hand on Petunia's shoulder.

Harry caught Snape's eye and realized they were both thinking the same thing.

"It wasn't coincidence that Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow. He knew that we were there," Harry said.

"Let's not jump to conclusions, Harry," Hermione said, alarm evident in her voice. "It isn't exactly a leap of judgement to think that you would go there. That is where your parents are buried after all."

"That's true. But he Apparated straight into the living room and attacked. He wasn't checking the place out on a hunch, he was on a mission . . . and it wasn't to get me," Harry said, exchanging another look with Snape.

"He was after me," Petunia said quietly, not missing the non-verbal communication going on.

"But that's ridiculous," Ron said, "Isn't it?"

Snape shook his head and said, "No it's not. He told us that's who he was after, and I have a feeling that Petunia is also the reason he knew we were at Godric's Hollow."

"What, how?" Petunia asked.

"Wormtail," Snape said, disgust all over his features.

"Peter . . . but, oh my gosh, Remus knew I was at the burrow . . ." Petunia said, placing a hand over her mouth.

Hermione's eyes opened in understanding. She pointed at Snape, her finger shaking, "And you knew that she was coming back before she even arrived."

"Of course!" Harry said, sitting down heavily on a large chair.

"Okay, anyone mind explaining for the slow one," Ron said, waving a hand in the air.

"Oh, Ron, don't you see. The spell. Clearly it formed some kind of bond between Petunia and the participants. They know where she is," Hermione said.

"All the time?" Ron asked, disbelief on his face.

"Well based on what I know of the spell, which isn't much, it's probably just if they're thinking about her, but honestly, it's probably always there on some subconscious level," Hermione said, looking to Snape for confirmation.

"I didn't notice until that moment that I felt she was coming back. I think you do have to be thinking about her for it to work at least on some subconscious level," Snape said.

"But if that's true," Petunia said, standing up suddenly and looking frantic, "then Voldemort could be asking Peter right now where we are."

Snape shook his head, "I think we're safe for now. I think the Fidelius Charm should counteract the bond. Peter wouldn't be able to see Grimmauld Place if he were standing right outside of it, thus I don't think he should be able to sense you while you're in it."

"That makes sense, I suppose . . . but we can't stay here forever . . ." Petunia said trailing off as once again Harry and Snape shared a significant look. "You know, I think I liked it better when you two hated one another. Okay, what are you thinking?"

"Until we can figure out a way to break this bond . . . I don't think you can be with us Aunt Petunia," Harry said quietly.

"What? But . . ."

"Harry's right, Petunia. We can't risk Voldemort figuring out what we're up to, and we can't risk him getting to you. You're who he's after . . ." Snape said, not looking Petunia in the eye.

"It's okay Petunia, I'll do some research, see if I can figure out a way to sever the connection," Hermione said, placing a sympathetic hand on Petunia's shoulder.

"Here," Harry said, pulling his mother's diary out of his pouch, "Read through this and see if Mum said anything about this connection. She probably didn't know about this side effect, but maybe there's something that can help."

"Harry," Hermione said, biting on her bottom lip. "Thank you for trusting me with this. I'll see what I can figure out."

"In the mean time . . ." Harry started, but was interrupted as Dung cleared his throat.

"In the mean time, maybe you should give Dung his wand back so that he can give us Hufflepuff's cup," Ron interrupted, causing everyone to look over at Dung who was listening intently to everything that was being said.

"Oh, someone remembered I was here. Goody."

"Sorry, Dung, what with being attacked by Voldemort and everything, we got a little preoccupied," Harry said, handing Dung his wand.

"It's nothing. Being attacked by You-Know-Who is enough to show me that you guys are doing something important," Dung said, waving his wand in the air and making the cup materialize. "You can have this for as long as you need it. If it's okay with you though, I think I'll be on my way. I don't want to be around the next time you're attacked."

Dung turned to leave, but found himself staring down the point of Snape's wand.

"You tell anyone, you tell one single soul about what you heard today, and it will be the last thing you ever do," Snape said, with the deadly serious tone that Harry had learned to loathe in school.

"Severus, you have my word. On my parents, on Amelia, you have my word," Dung said, matching Snape's tone exactly.

Snape shook his head slowly and said, "Your word's not good enough. This is a matter of life and death, a matter of freedom for all wizarding kind. Your word would never be enough. I want an Unbreakable Vow."

"Severus, no . . ." Petunia said.

"Quiet Petunia. This is too important. We can't afford Dung's tongue slipping."

"Can't we just modify his memory?" Ron asked.

"Then he won't remember giving us the cup . . ." Harry said slowly.

He and Snape shared a look before Harry turned to Dung and said, "Snape's right Dung. We need absolute assurance. Make an Unbreakable Vow with me. Snape will be our Bonder. You need to swear not to tell a soul about what you have heard and what you have seen. If you do . . . it will quite literally be the last thing you do."

"Harry are you sure this is a good idea," Hermione asked, coming up beside him. "Unbreakable Vows . . . they're Dark magic. Think of all the circumstances that could lead to Dung slipping. He would die. And it would be your fault."

"But he wouldn't tell anyone else."

Hermione drew away from Harry and went to stand next to Ron, who was also looking at Harry as if he wasn't quite sure who he was.

"Let's do this," Harry said matter-of-factly. Then with a slightly embarrassed look, "Um . . . what exactly do I do?"

"You and Dung need to grasp hands and you need to tell him what you want him to do. If he accepts the bond will be made and he will die if he breaks it," Snape said.

Harry held out his hand and waited for Dung to grasp it. After a moment's hesitation, Dung did.

"It's not necessary Harry. I wouldn't betray you . . . but if this is what you need. I'll do it."

Severus placed the tip of his wand on Harry's and Dung's linked hands.

"Will you swear not to tell a soul about anything that you heard or saw while you were with us?" Harry said, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

"I will," Dung said calmly, never breaking eye contact with Harry.

A thin flame came out of Snape's wand and wound it's way around Harry and Dung's hands. After a moment it faded and Dung dropped Harry's hands.

Dung made to move toward the door so that he could Apparate from the doorstep, but before he left he turned to Harry and said, "I know you're on a very important mission Harry. You may think it's the most important task in the world, and knowing you, it probably is. Just make sure you don't lose yourself trying to complete that task."

Before Harry could ever start to wonder what the implications of that statement were, Dung had walked out the door and disappeared.

* * *

Ginny was sitting in a train compartment all on her own. For the first time she could ever remember, she hadn't been rushing last minute to catch the train.

Of course it had just been her this year. She was the last Weasley at Hogwarts. She wiped a tear away. Ginny had never been a crier. It wasn't her way. Sure she cried in moments that anyone would cry at. She cried when she had realized she was being possessed by the most evil wizard to ever live. She had cried at Dumbledore's funeral. She had cried when Harry had broken up with her . . . though not in front of him. She had waited until she was all alone to let those tears out.

But now she was crying because it wasn't fair. She wasn't supposed to be the last Weasley at Hogwarts. Not yet. That wasn't supposed to happen until next year. Ron should have been in the compartment with her. Along with Hermione. And Harry.

She couldn't help but smile to herself as she thought about Harry. But the smile faded as she wiped away another tear. She was so worried about him. About all of them. What could they be doing? Where could they be? Were they safe?

Every night since they had been gone she had stayed up at night worrying. She supposed she was glad to be going back to Hogwarts. Perhaps classes and Quidditch would distract her . . . oh who was she kidding. Once she stepped foot in that castle she knew that everywhere she looked would be another memory of Harry.

"Hello Ginny," a serene voice came from the doorway of the compartment.

Ginny quickly wiped her eyes and looked up at Luna, "Oh, hello Luna."

"Oh, it was okay. Father and I didn't go to any of our usual vacation spots because of everything that has been going on. You've been crying," Luna said, segueing from one conversation point to the next without missing a beat.

Ginny, who by now was used to Luna's strange conversation style, nodded and said, "Yes, I was. But I'll be fine."

Luna looked like she was about to say something else, but was interrupted by the compartment door flying open. Standing in the doorway was a very disheveled Neville.

"There you are! Finally! I've been up and down this train looking for you two. Hurry, we don't have much time," Neville said, moving into the compartment and pulling down the window.

"Why hello Neville, how are you?" Ginny said sarcastically.

"I'll be bloody fantastic as soon as you climb out this window," Neville said, reeling on Ginny.

Luna and Ginny both took a step back in surprise, and then Ginny took another step back as she was shocked to see Luna with a look of surprise on her face . . . like actual surprise rather than that look of perpetual surprise that was usually there.

But the moment passed and Luna took a step forward. Neville smiled and gave her a boost so she could start climbing out the window.

"Luna! What are you doing? The train's about to leave!" Ginny said, trying to get a grasp on what madness was happening.

"I know Ginny. I imagine it will be much harder to get off once the train is moving. You'll make sure to get my bag, right Neville?" Luna said, and when Neville nodded she pulled herself the rest of the way out the window and landed on the ground below.

"But_why_ are we sneaking off the train?" Ginny asked, exasperated by the fact that she was getting no answers.

"I don't have time to explain right now, Ginny. Just please, do you trust me?" Neville said. He was pleading with his eyes for her to come with him.

And who was she to turn down a pleading Neville. After all, what did Hogwarts really have for her. None of her brothers were there. One of her best friends weren't there and apparently her other two weren't going to be there either. Her boyfriend wasn't there. And there was a war going on. She didn't know what Neville needed her for, but she knew it had to be a hell of a lot more important than school.

"Of course I trust you Neville. Now give me a boost," Ginny said, and Neville gave her a grateful smile. A few minutes later the Hogwarts Express was pulling out of King's Cross Station short three passengers who were currently dashing down the tracks headed for the distant countryside.

* * *

**A/N**: So? What did you think? Even though my main plot is following basically the plan I had, this side plot popped into my head out of nowhere, and I am loving where it's taking me so far. I think you guys are going to like it, too! Oh, and make sure to let me know what you think of me starting a yahoo group. Until next time (which hopefully won't be too long!) 


	11. Chapter 11: Splitting Up

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: I know, I know. I'm awful. It's been more than six months. I had an excuse for a while. I was working two jobs. Full time teaching plus my job at a restaurant. But I had all summer to update and I didn't and I'm sorry! I am going to try really, really hard to give this story more attention, but I don't want to promise, because I hate breaking promises. But I will try to be better!

**Becca**: Thanks for always being my faithful reader. I know at least that you'll always keep reading even after my long hiatuses. :-)

**SiriuslyLoopyLupin**: I'm glad you liked the last chapter and that you're excited about the subplot. I am too. And it's one of those things that I didn't plan from the very beginning, but just kind of came to me, and now I'm super excited to see where it takes me. We get some more of that this chapter and I plan to keep up with it in every chapter. And you're right, Luna and Neville are her trio.

**Bahzad**: Thanks for the review and still sticking with me even through my long absences.

**LilyJamesaddict**: Sorry I didn't update soon. I hate leaving you guys hanging, but I seem to keep doing it. I'll try really, really hard to be quicker with the next update.

**Ecstace**: Well . . . I didn't take a month to update . . . I took much longer. Sorry! I'm glad you're liking the subplot and what I did with the last chapter. As for the yahoo group, I think I'm going to hold off, because I'd rather focus on keeping up with this story that have to worry about maintaining that group.

Thank you to those of you who are still reading, and especially to those of you who are still reviewing. I know everybody says it, but the reviews really do keep me motivated and keep me writing. I know there have been times where I've been ready to say "screw it" and then I get a review that just gives me a kick in the butt to get to work and finish that next chapter. I do it for you guys!

* * *

Chapter 11: Splitting Up

"Can we please stop Neville. We've been walking for hours and you still haven't explained where we're going," Ginny said, struggling to keep up with the very determined boy in front of her.

"I don't even know where we're going, I just wanted to get far away from the train before they realized we were gone," Neville said. He stopped, realizing Ginny was no longer right behind him. She had stopped and was clutching her side. Her hair was matted and sticking to her face and she looked positively exhausted. He turned to look at Luna next to him, and while it wasn't as obvious, he could tell that she was tired as well.

"Sorry guys. I suppose we're far enough by now, and I honestly don't know where we're going, so we might as well stop so I can explain," Neville said, taking a seat and pulling out a couple of water bottles from his knapsack.

"Thank you," Ginny said, taking the water bottle from Neville. "Now do you care to explain why you pulled us off the train when you don't even know where we're going."

"Are we going to help Harry?" Luna asked.

"Help Harry with what?" Ginny asked suddenly. As far as she knew Harry, Ron, and Hermione hadn't told anyone what they were doing. Not even her, she couldn't help thinking bitterly to herself.

"Whatever it is he is doing with Ronald and Hermione that kept him from school this year. He wasn't on the train. And I thought after what happened last year . . . with Dumbledore. Well he's Harry . . . he must be doing something important. Like when we all went to the Department of Mysteries," Luna said with a small smile.

Ginny found it mildly disturbing that Luna could remember the Department of Mysteries and find it to be something to smile about.

"I don't know what Harry is up to, either, and who knows in the long run what I need to do may help him, but that's not my primary concern. Bellatrix Lestrange took my mother," Neville said, sitting down heavily on a nearby stump.

Ginny jumped up and ran to put an arm around him.

"What do you mean she took her? How?"

"She walked into the hospital, killed four Healers, and took her. I put up a bit of a fight, but . . . she's just too powerful . . ." Neville said, clearly fighting back tears.

"Neville . . ." Luna said quietly, placing a hand on his. Ginny noticed that he seemed to lose a little of the tension in his body at her touch.

"That's not all," Neville said turning to directly address Luna, "She recognized me . . . my Mum, I mean. It was only for a moment, but while Bellatrix was hurting me, she looked at me, and . . . and it was her. My mum. Looking at me."

Luna gripped Neville's hand tighter and for a moment Ginny felt as if she was intruding on a private moment, but then Neville looked up into her eyes and held his other hand out. Ginny grabbed it and squeezed.

"We'll get her back, Neville. I don't know how . . . but I promise you we will do everything in our power to get her back," Ginny said, a fire burning in her stomach.

Neville took a deep breath and nodded. Then shaking his head he said, "I hadn't thought much further than getting off the train. I have absolutely no idea how we'll even find where they're keeping my Mum, let alone what we'll do once we've figured that out."

Ginny sighed and said, "Well let's first focus on finding out where she is. How do we go about finding Voldemort's hideout?"

Luna, who had still be looking at Neville with a great deal of concern, looked up with a small smile and said, "Why, we ask a Death Eater, of course." 

* * *

"You know, I didn't think it was possible . . . but I think I hate Voldemort even more," Hermione said quietly, looking up at Petunia from the floor where she was reading Lily's diary.

Ron looked up from his own reading. He had volunteered to stay and help research along with Hermione while Snape and Harry had gone to retrieve the last Horcrux. He hadn't wanted to leave Harry alone with Snape, but at the same time he couldn't bear to leave Hermione. Plus, to Ron's own disgust, Harry had been getting along better and better with their former professor.

"She was an amazing person, wasn't she?" Petunia said with a small smile.

"Well, yes, but that's not what I mean. She was an extraordinary witch. There are so many spells in her that I never would have dreamed of and no one knows about them. Think of all of the other spells she could have created if she would have lived . . ." Hermione said.

Ron looked at Hermione in shock. How could she say something like that to the woman's sister. Who cared if she was a brilliant witch . . . she was Aunt Petunia's sister . . . and Harry's Mum.

Hermione glanced over at him and seeing the look he was giving her blushed immediately.

"I didn't mean . . . oh Petunia, that's not to say . . ."

Petunia smiled and said, "Don't for a moment be sorry Hermione. Yes, Lily was my sister and that will always be first in my mind, but you are not wrong in saying she was brilliant. I'm sure many people wonder exactly where we would be today if she would have lived. You know she once told me that eventually she wanted to teach. She wanted to spend her youth developing as many new Charms as she could imagine and then spend her elderly years teaching those charms to students. She would have been amazing."

"She would have been distracting," Ron mumbled, glancing at one of the pictures of her Petunia had brought back from Godric's Hollow. He knew she was his best mate's Mum, but . . . well, his mother certainly didn't look like her.

Hermione walked over, sat next to him on the sofa, and said, "Yes, she was quite beautiful. Especially her eyes. I've always found them quite distracting in Harry."

Ron jolted suddenly, but met the teasing look in Hermione's eyes and calmed considerably when she placed a small hand on his knee.

She was only teasing . . .

He looked over to see Petunia hiding a smile and he shifted so that Hermione's hand was no longer on him. As much as he enjoyed the contact, he knew now was not the time to be distracted by such things. He was quite relieved when Petunia seemed to take pity on the situation and asked if Hermione had found anything useful about the Sororamor Charm.

Hermione shook her head sadly and said, "She never really writes about the Charm directly. Her entries during that time are always rushed . . . frantic even and she was very careful not to put any concrete information. She knew how dangerous it would be . . . well, here, listen to this entry . . ."

_Everyone's finally agreed. Petunia agreed to the spell and Severus agreed to do the potion. I never thought they would . . . but somehow I convinced them. And now . . . NOW . . . I don't know if I can go through with it. Not because I'm afraid to lose Petunia . . . I came to terms with that already. I love her more than anything and I must protect her, no matter the cost to me. But . . . what about the cost to the rest of the world? In the wrong hands, this is an incredibly dangerous spell. What if it falls into the wrong hands? Of course . . . it never will. I've written nothing of the details in here . . . and I trust everyone involved . . . and besides no one will remember anyway . . . and it must be performed from a place of love . . . and I've taken every precaution imaginable. And yet? What if I've missed something? I know in my heart that this spell is meant for a good purpose . . . but what about other spells that have been created for good and then have been used for evil purposes . . . this spell is a hundred times more dangerous than anything I can think of. Is Petunia really more important to me than the rest of the world? Am I really that selfish . . .  
_

Ron read the diary over Hermione's shoulder as she read the entry aloud. The handwriting was messy . . . rushed. And much of the ink was smeared as if she had been crying while she wrote. He noticed that Petunia was crying now.

He couldn't imagine the choice that Lily had faced so many years ago, but at the same time, he could remember a time where he could think of nothing except his sister's safety. When Ginny had been taken to the Chamber of Secrets, he was terrified of going after her, but at the same time, he knew that he would. There was no other choice. And as much as it scared him now, he knew that he would have done anything, absolutely anything asked of him if it meant saving her . . . even if it meant taking a risk that could very well destroy everything he held dear . . . he would do it.

He glanced at Hermione and wondered if she could relate to that feeling. She was an only child so she probably didn't understand the bonds of a sibling. But then she looked up and caught his eye, and he saw the look.

"Would you have done it, Hermione? For anyone?"

"For Harry," she said quietly.

And there it was again. The pang. The jealousy. Yet, Ron knew that he would risk anything for Harry as well. But why had Hermione said Harry . . . why not him?

He looked up to see Petunia studying him very closely and then she said, "I think I'm the only person Lily would have every risked it for. I was the only person she cared about even more than the greater good. Well me . . . and James . . ."

The knife in Ron's heart twisted a little deeper.

". . . of course Lily would never have performed that spell for him," Petunia continued and Ron looked up and kept eye contact with her.

"Why not?"

"She loved him too much. Love that strong is a selfish love. She would do anything to keep him safe, but to give him up would be to die herself. Lily could go on without me . . . she could never have gone on without James."

Ron felt Hermione's hand tighten around his own and his heart soared.

"But Professor Snape," Hermione said very quietly, "I can tell he loves you . . ."

Petunia gave a sad smile and said, "Oh he did. The difference between the way he loved me and the way Lily and James loved each other though was that he never believed he deserved to have me in the first place." 

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy was a proud woman. A proud woman who cowered before no one. Her husband may cower in front of The Dark Lord, but Narcissa never would. That was the only reason she never took the mark. While she agreed with all of the ideals the Dark Lord upheld, she could never agree with seeing a proud man like her husband cowering in front of someone else.

And her sister was even worse. Growing up Narcissa believed that Bellatrix was everything she could ever want to be. Beautiful, powerful, respected . . . even feared. Bellatrix had always been quite short, yet she could stare down a man twice her size, never breaking eye contact and he would back away in fear. Even now, Narcissa knew Bellatrix did not kneel in front of the Dark Lord out of fear, Bellatrix feared nothing, but out of respect. But still . . . her sister kneeled in front of another. That was something no one from the Noble House of Black should ever do.

But Narcissa had never given up her noble demeanor. She submitted to no one. Begged for nothing.

Until last summer when her son, the person she held more dear than anyone else in the world, had been threatened. She had cried, screamed, nearly tore her hair out trying to convince her sister to help Draco. But to no avail.

And now she felt a sense of Deja Vu as she was forced to submit once more. But this time, it was so much worse.

"Please Bella . . . he is your nephew, your blood. You cannot turn your back on that!"

"The Dark Lord believes Draco should be punished for his failure . . . there is nothing I can do," Bellatrix said, and Narcissa held out hope, because she could hear the regret in her sister's voice.

"The Dark Lord believes, but I know you do not. Dumbledore is dead. The task was completed . . . I don't understand why the Dark Lord cares whether or not it was Draco who cast the spell . . ."

"It is not up to us to judge the Dark Lord's actions. He believes Draco should be punished, and so he shall."

And once again, there was pain in her voice.

"Bella, please. I'm not asking you to do anything. Just tell me where he is. He's of no use to the Dark Lord. If I go and retrieve him, the Dark Lord's plans will in no way be hindered. He's only . . ." Narcissa paused, not wanting to voice what she knew was true. "He's only hurting Draco to punish Lucius for past mistakes. You know it's not right, Bella. I know you know that in your heart."

"Cissy," Bellatrix started, not meeting her younger sister's eye. Narcissa could tell Bellatrix was trying very hard to hold back her emotions. "You know I love Draco as if he was my own son, but the Dark Lord and his cause is everything to me . . ."

Narcissa crumpled to the floor in front of her sister knowing that there was no hope. She knew more than anyone that the Dark Lord would always come first to Bella. Always.

". . . which is why he must never know that I was the one to tell you where Draco is."

Glowing silver eyes raised to meet ones black as night.

"The Dark Lord cares very little about Draco. He is of no use to him and you are correct, he merely keeps him as a means to punish your foolish husband. He will barely even notice that he's gone. But that doesn't mean he would not punish me if he learned that I'm the reason he was rescued," Bellatrix said in a quiet whisper, afraid that someone might be listening.

"Oh Bella . . . he'll never know. No one will know. And I'll take Draco away somewhere safe . . ."

"Do not tell me where you're taking him. I must know nothing. The Dark Lord will already suspect me . . . I will do everything I can to shift his suspicions to Severus. The Dark Lord knows you two were close and it will not be beyond his imagination that the traitor would have come to you. But you must wait Cissy . . ."

"Wait?! How can I possibly wait?" Narcissa interrupted. The idea of her boy being tortured for even a moment longer sent daggers through her insides.

". . . Narcissa you must. He knows I was coming to visit you today . . . he is not stupid. He will know. I have tried once or twice to convince him to let Draco go . . ."

Bellatrix trailed off, letting Narcissa know that the results had not been pleasant. But Narcissa's heart felt a little lighter knowing that her Bellatrix wasn't all gone. She still cared for her family . . . even enough to question her precious Dark Lord. Maybe not last summer . . . because then the danger was only possible . . . but now, that Draco's pain was a fact. Narcissa smiled. Bellatrix still cared.

Narcissa placed a hand over her sister's and said, "I will wait . . . but I cannot wait long. You must make the Dark Lord believe that Severus has visited me recently. I cannot let Draco suffer when it's in my power to save him."

Nodding her agreement, Bellatrix started to say something else when she grabbed her forearm.

"The Dark Lord is summoning me. I must go. He is being kept in your old favorite hiding place. Wait as long as you can Cissy, I will try to convince the Dark Lord that Severus has been here . . ."

Before Narcissa could say anything more, Bella swept from the room and has soon Apparated away.

The moment the magical wards told Narcissa that her sister was gone, she summoned a house elf and bade them get her her traveling cloak.

Narcissa loved her sister very much, but no one was more important to her than Draco, and now that she knew exactly where he was being held, nothing was going to stop her from getting to him, she thought to herself as she glided across her grounds toward the apparition point just outside of her gates.

Nothing was going to stop her . . . except of course for the three teenagers trying to figure out how to get through the Malfoy Manor gates. 

* * *

"How in the world did you know where Malfoy lived?" Ginny asked Luna.

Coming from a very old pureblood family herself, Ginny knew that the majority of the old families kept their ancestral homes a secret. She was even pretty sure that her own home was not the easiest to find, if not quite as well protected as Malfoy Manor.

"Daddy knows where just about every wizarding family lives. He has records. Back in second year when I developed a misguided crush on Draco, I looked up where his family lived."

Ginny and Neville stopped scrutinizing the gates (they had already decided against touching them for fear of being hexed) and stared at Luna in shock.

Luna shrugged and said, "I was young . . . oh look. Someone's coming."

Even though it was very hard to pry her eyes away from her blond friend, and even harder to get the unpleasant picture of Luna and Draco out of her mind, she did turn to see a woman walking quite briskly across the grounds. She had seen her only a handful of times before, but she recognized the woman as just the person they were hoping to find: Narcissa Malfoy.

It had been decided before the three arrived that Ginny would be the one to do the talking. Ginny was the one with the information that could get Narcissa's attention and even though most considered her family blood-traitors, she was still a pureblood, which would hopefully mean something to a woman like her.

"I don't know what you three children are doing here and why you are not at school, but I have matters that I must attend to and do not have time to get rid of you properly. Find your own way out," Narcissa said, raising her wand to disapparate.

"This matter couldn't possibly be more important than your son, could it?" Ginny said quickly.

The elder witch turned and met Ginny's eyes and Ginny was surprised to see real emotion in them. Every time she had seen this woman in the past, she had always had a mask of snobbish disinterest. Now her eyes blazed with a fire that Ginny was unsure that she herself had ever really felt. It was strange to see someone who she had always imagined as being cold and unfeeling showing that not only did she have feelings, but powerful ones at that.

"What do you know about Draco?"

"Only that Voldemort is keeping him prisoner and has used the Cruciatus on him, leaving him in a state that he may never recover from," Ginny said, trying to keep her voice even and trying to control the emotions that came up thinking of anyone, even someone she despised, enduring such pain.

Narcissa lowered her wand, and Ginny thanked the heavens that she had the foresight to eavesdrop on that Order meeting the day Harry had arrived. She never told the others that she had listened in. Hermione had filled her in later on all of the stuff about Snape, but had left out the bit about Draco. When she had told Neville and Luna about it, they had decided they could possibly use this bit of information and find out where Neville's mom was being kept.

"I don't know how you know this or why you are here . . ." Narcissa said, seeming to give into her curiosity, "Why are you here?"

"We'd like to help Draco," Ginny said, surprised to find that she actually meant it.

Narcissa actually laughed as she said, "I know who you are. The Weasley girl. And you," she said turning to Neville, "You look very much like your mother. You're Alice Johnson . . . well Longbottom's son. I know you two were not friends with my son . . . you would never want to help him."

"You may not be able to understand this, but some people want to help other human beings, regardless of if they actually like them," Ginny said, unable to hold back her temper.

Narcissa narrowed her eyes for a moment and then said, "You're dating Harry Potter aren't you?"

Ginny was caught completely off guard by that statement and had to switch gears quickly to come up with an answer. She decided honesty was the best way to go.

"We were dating, yes. How did you know that?"

"Draco mentioned it. And just now . . . you reminded me of the woman who dated, and married, the last Potter," Narcissa said, sizing Ginny up carefully.

"Lily," Ginny said without thinking.

Narcissa pursed her lips and nodded. "Yes. I never much cared for her . . ."

"Mrs. Malfoy," Neville said taking a step forward. Ginny looked at him and he gave her a pleading look. She nodded and let him approach the woman. Maybe it would be better for him to plead his case.

"Ginny wasn't entirely honest. While I do have every intention of helping your son, because it is the right thing to do, despite the fact that he has made my life a living hell since the moment I stepped into Hogwarts, that is not the reason we're here," Neville started, glancing at Narcissa to see if she would let him continue.

"Honesty. How refreshing. So why did you come," Narcissa said, clearly still in a hurry, but finally willing to hear them out.

"Your sister . . . you know what she did to my parents," Neville said.

Ginny watched Narcissa carefully and was unable to read the emotion that crossed her face. It certainly wasn't pride, but it wasn't quite remorse either. The woman merely nodded.

"Well, now she has taken my mom. She took her from St. Mungo's right in front of me. And I am willing to do anything to get her back. Anything. I will save your son as well, because as I said it is the right thing to do, but also as a thank you, if you can tell me where you think they are keeping her."

Quite quickly, many emotions played across Narcissa's face. Ginny was unable to read any other them. After a moment she waved her wand and opened the gates.

"We cannot discuss anything out here and we must be quick. I think we can come to an agreement . . . follow me."

The three teenagers looked at one another, hardly daring to believe that she seemed to be open to helping them. Before she could change her mind, they followed her inside. What none of them knew was that each of the others had a firm grip on their wand. None of them were willing to believe this wasn't just a trap.

* * *

As Harry looked out across Loch Ness he wondered how in the world he and Snape were going to find Ravenclaw's Brooch. Then another thought came to mind.

"Hey Snape. Nessie's not going to give us any trouble is he?"

Snape turned and met Harry with a look that reminded him of the not-so-good-old days.

"What in the world are you talking about, Potter?"

Potter. Harry knew he must have been annoyed, but he was genuinely curious. So he continued.

"You know, Nessie? The Loch Ness monster?"

"Sounds like Muggle Fairy Tale nonsense," Snape said, going back to concentrating on the locating spell he was attempting to cast.

"Hmm," Harry said to himself, "So wizards, witches, werewolves, vampires, unicorns, and all other sorts of magical creatures are real . . . but not Nessie. The muggles would be so disappointed."

"You know, this would go much faster if you would stop mumbling to yourself over there and actually help me," Snape said, his annoyance level clearly climbing by the moment.

Harry held back the smart retort he had ready and went over to see exactly what Snape was doing. He had both the locket and cup out and seemed to be trying to cast some sort of spell on them. They had noticed immediately that the two objects were very attracted to one another, which, if you really thought about it, made sense. Of course two pieces of the same soul would want to try to reattach to one another. Despite the fact that it belonged to Voldemort and he had no trouble splitting it. A soul was still a soul and wanted to be whole.

Snape was attempting to use this attraction as a kind of barometer to let them know exactly where the other one was. Kind of like a twisted game of Marco Polo.

Thinking of the game he had watched his cousin play countless times while forced to stay outside the gates of the pool, he wondered if he had found a possible solution.

"Is there any way to make the connection between the Horcruxes one that we could hear?" Harry asked, seeing that Snape was growing frustrated with the spell he was attempting to cast.

Snape looked up at him with surprise and asked, "What exactly do you mean?"

"Well . . . the Horcruxes have a connection, right? They can sense one another. Is there anyway that we can make that . . . signal . . . or whatever it is that connects them, something that we could hear. And then we could just follow the sound. I don't know if it's possible, but if it is . . ." Harry trailed off, surprised to see a look of pride on his former professor's face.

"That . . . that's actually a very good idea, Harry. And it is possible. It will take me some time, but it is possible. In the meantime, go through my bag and see if you can locate my Gillyweed. I trust you remember what it looks like," Snape said, a slight grimace crossing his face.

Harry laughed and decided now would be as good a time as any to clear up that one misunderstanding. "I really didn't steal that from you . . . it was Dobby."

Snape nodded and then turned and fixed Harry with a scrutinizing gaze, "And second year?"

"Looking into the mirror and seeing Goyle staring back at me has to rank among the top 5 strangest moments of my life," Harry said with a grin.

Harry was surprised to see Snape fighting back a smile.

"So you three were able to brew Polyjuice potion as second years. Impressive."

The shock of hearing that comment come out of his former professor's mouth left Harry unable to say anything else. Instead he left Snape to work on the charm as he rummaged through the many bottled plants in his bag looking for Gillyweed. 

* * *

A/N: So as you guys can see, I have a few different subplots brewing here, which is good news for you guys. Because part of the reason that it's sometimes hard for me to keep writing is that I get bored. But with these different subplots, if I get bored with one, I can just start working on another. I will try my very hardest to get you an update as quick as possible. I'm not promising anything . . . but, heck, I promise it won't be as long of a wait as this last chapter! ;-) Please review . . . they motivate me so! 


	12. Chapter 12: Separate Paths

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry, Petunia, Snape or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!

**A/N**: Yay! I got this chapter up in less than a month. I'm going to try really, really hard to at least do monthly updates. Really hard! Anyway, thank you to those of you who are still reviewing. They really do make me happy and really do motivate me to keep writing!

**Rebecca Lynn**: I'm glad you enjoyed the love talk. I like writing stuff like that, so try to include it here and there. And you'll get to see more Harry Snape bonding in this chapter, so prepare to be weirded out!

**Storylover1992**: Sorry I wasn't able to give you an update that weekend, but it's just not practical for me to be able to update that quickly. Still I will try to give you monthly updates. I don't want to leave you guys hanging for months and months again.

**Ecstace**: Thanks for saying it was worth the wait. Here's more of the subplots, but still just a tiny taste. I'll focus more in depth on them in the coming chapters though. I like having some of most of them in every chapter though.

**LilyJames addict**: Here you go! :-)

* * *

Chapter 12: Separate Paths Toward a Common Goal

_A TAIL! That horrible, awful, despicable, and every other word that means BAD BAD BAD person gave me a TAIL. I hate him. I hate him more than I have ever or will ever hate another person. HATE HATE HATE!!_

The prefect meeting was actually rather boring . . . but BEFORE it! That was priceless! Potter actually pretended that HE was named prefect. Can you believe it? Why in the world would he do something so stupid? Like I wouldn't find out eventually? Oh, but the look on his face when Remus called him on his lie . . . that is a look that I will treasure for all of eternity. Another look I'll have to keep in mind is the one that Remus threw Amelia's way . . . note to self. Tell Amelia about "the look" immediately.

You know looking at the family Sirius came from, I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that he did what he did . . . but really it is, because it's Sirius. Sure he's annoying, and some of his pranks can border the line of cruelty . . . but out and out attempted murder? Even on someone he hates as much as Severus. I just can't believe it. And James . . . why was I surprised that he stopped it from happening? I mean really, as much as he annoys me, he is a good person. Brave, noble . . . he would never stand by and watch anyone get seriously hurt . . . even someone he hates. And it was weird. Sitting down there, holding his hand . . . I can't even think about it. I need sleep.

WHY DIDN'T HE KISS ME?? I don't understand. Why almost kiss me and then just . . . not! We had that wonderful night together and then he says he loves me . . . okay, okay, so he didn't mean it in THAT way . . . but still. Am I not kissable? I mean, he kissed me before when I was all puffy and crying, and oh, it's just so confusing. And this spell isn't going to wear off for several more hours and I just wish I could go to sleep and forget the way I felt when I saw his face coming closer. The way my heart beat faster. The way I got a little dizzy. The way Joey was the furthest thing from my mind. Oh, Joey. He's such a nice guy . . . but James. He's just so . . . James. :( This is just all too confusing. I wish I could talk to Petunia!

"Did you find anything helpful?" Hermione asked Petunia.

Petunia jumped, slightly startled and looked over at the newly awoken teenager. She was rubbing her eyes and stretching. She looked to be in a bit of pain. Of course, falling asleep in a chair covered in very heavy books probably wasn't the most comfortable idea ever.

A muffled snore from the corner proved that Ron was still asleep, half of his body hanging off the couch, a book covering his face.

Petunia had stayed awake throughout the night, trying to find _anything_ that would help them figure out how to free her. Because that's how she felt. Trapped. Trapped and unable to do anything to help. She was reminded of exactly how she felt the entire time she was growing up. A squib in the wizarding world, unable to protect herself or the people that she loved.

She almost missed the security and feelings of belonging that had come along with the spell.

Almost.

Looking back down at the diary she had been skimming for the past hour, having given up on the books in the Black Library, she couldn't imagine not having these memories. Everything she read in the earlier sections of the diary she had of course heard about from Lily, sometimes in very graphic detail.

God, how she missed her.

"You weren't really looking for information to help, were you?" Hermione asked softly.

Petunia was startled once more by the young girl's voice, having been lost in her own thoughts, but she shook her head.

"No. At first that's what I had planned to do, but soon I was flipping through here and there are just so many memories. And, reading Lily's writing. I can hear her voice in my head, see the expressions she would make as she spoke about certain things or certain people. It's almost as if she were alive again . . ."

"I've glance at a couple of the earlier entries. She seemed like a very vivacious person," Hermione said, scooting across the floor to sit closer to Petunia.

"That is definitely the perfect word to describe her. Lily was always full of life. I think that's why it's so hard to really accept that she's dead. That's just so . . . not Lily."

"What about Harry's dad? Everything I've ever heard about him makes it seem like he was full of energy, too," Hermione said tentatively.

Petunia understood. She had spent a fair amount of time with Hermione and she knew that on the one hand, this girl wanted to know about Lily and James Potter, the people that history would remember. But at the same time, Petunia knew that more than anything she wanted to understand the people that created her best friend.

"You know, that's the thing about James. Anyone who knew him from afar would say he was more full of life than Lily. More out of control, more over the top. But those who knew him well, and honestly, I can only marginally count myself as one of those people, knew that he was actually pretty low key. He kept his emotions fairly bottled up and under control, and would only express them in a loud and boisterous manner if he thought he could play it off as a joke if things didn't go his way. But he did have that same love of life, that same vitality that Lily had. Definitely," Petunia said, finding it hard to decide whether or not she wanted to laugh or cry, remembering two people that she loved dearly.

"Do you think . . . do you think Harry would be different? If he had been raised by them, I mean? Do you think maybe he would have some of that . . . life?" Hermione asked, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

And Petunia felt a pang in her heart. She knew exactly what Hermione meant. Harry, who should have all the vitality and energy that both of his parents had possessed, was a shell of the boy he should be. Years of attempts on his life, of wanting desperately to be out of the spotlight because of the fact that he was forced into it, and, as much as it hurt to admit it, years of neglect and downright abuse as a child, had torn all of that away from him. And Petunia knew, the majority of that fault lay on her shoulders. And yet . . .

"You know, Hermione, it may not be the obvious kind of light that exuded from Lily and James, but Harry does have it. The light. That hope. The knowledge that no matter what . . . he will live and make a positive difference in this world. And if he should die before that light is really ready to be extinguished . . . it will be a good death. One that makes a difference in the world. James died protecting Lily and Harry. Lily protecting Harry. Harry would never settle for anything less than that . . . and more than that the thing that makes Harry _just_ like his parents is that he would be willing to die to protect someone or something he loved. That's something that would be the same about him no matter what circumstances about his life might change."

Before Hermione could say anything, Ron let out a particularly loud snort. So loud in fact, that he woke himself from his very deep sleep.

"What . . . who . . . well, what are you two looking at?" Ron asked, sitting bolt upright on the couch, and nearly falling off.

Hermione and Petunia both looked at one another and dissolved into laughter. 

* * *

Of all the sounds he had expected the Horcrux to make once the location spell was activated, a seductive hum was definitely at the bottom of the list. It was almost hypnotic, even though at the moment, as he sat at the loch's edge, it was very, very faint.

Snape was pacing behind him, clearly struggling with the decision they had made to have Harry go.

"I should be the one going, Potter," Snape said.

Harry smiled. He was annoyed, hence the use of his surname once more. It was a nice little tell he was beginning to recognize. As he and the older wizard had begrudgingly grown closer, Snape, who would always be Snape to Harry–it was just too weird to call a Professor anything else–had begun to call him Harry. But when he was angry or annoyed, it was always back to Potter.

"Well, sorry Snape, but it's not my fault your parents never thought it a good idea to teach you how to swim. Even the Dursleys made sure that I had lessons. They didn't want me drawing attention to myself by accidently drowning the few times I was allowed to go to the pool."

Snape glowered and said, "Dumbledore would kill me if he were alive. Petunia will kill me when she finds out. It's too dangerous."

Harry laughed and said, "How is this any more dangerous than when I went into the Lake for the second task. I know more magic now and there are less dangerous creatures in the Loch than in the Lake. You said so yourself. I'll be fine. Don't worry so . . ."

Harry trailed off as once again he could hear the song of the Horcrux. It was haunting. And he could feel the locket around his neck pulsing, wanting to find the source of the music. It was so intoxicating, so mesmorizing, so . . .

"_Potter_! Do you see? This is what I mean? I am willing to admit that you have a certain affinity toward Defensive magic. But mind magic. You're wretched! You could never master Occlumency, you can't even handle non-verbal spells. You must protect your mind against the Horcrux' seduction!"

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Snape shut him down once more.

"Do not argue, Potter. I will give you credit that it was a good idea for a locating spell, but by giving the Horcrux a voice, you are giving it more power. The power to persuade. This is a piece of Voldemort's soul you're dealing with, and the Dark Lord is nothing if not persuasive!"

Snape was working himself up into a kind of frenzy, and frankly it was rather horrifying. It was horrifying to see his normally composed Professor frazzled, and even more horrifying that it was because he was concerned about his, Harry's, safety.

"Snape! You need to have more faith in me. I still maintain that I was bad at those things because of you. To use your words, you were a 'wretched' teacher. You let your hatred of me keep you from being a good one. In fourth year I was able to resist the Imperius curse. I can resist mind magic. I can," Harry said, feeling very strange directing such a soothing voice at Snape, and feeling even more strange to see that it was working.

The older man seemed to be struggling with his decision when finally he said, "Fine. You'll go. It takes ten minutes to reach the bottom of the Loch. That means you have forty minutes to search before you must begin your return to the surface. The Gillyweed only lasts one hour."

"Can't I just perform a bubblehead charm or have you transfigure me like Krum did so that I could stay down there as long as I need to?" Harry asked.

"Bubblehead charms won't work after a depth of 500 feet. It was a safe bet in the Lake as it's deepest point is only about 300 feet. The Loch reaches depths of over 700. We can't risk it. And the human transfiguration . . . it's very difficult," Snape said, avoiding Harry's eye.

"But that's why I'd have you do it, Professor," Harry said, not daring to believe what he thought his professor was trying to say.

"Potions is an art! It's like I told you on your first day of Potions. Charms, Trasfiguration . . . it's nothing but silly wand waving!" Snape said, his scowl growing darker by the moment.

Harry could barely suppress his grin as he asked, "Professor . . . did you fail out of Transfiguration?"

"I received a perfect score on my Potions O.W.L. I was the first student to do that in three centuries. I received O's in every other subject . . ."

"And in Transfiguration . . ." Harry asked, letting the smile come forth.

"I got a Dreadful," Snape said, "And I swear, Potter, if you ever tell anyone! Not even your Aunt knows, when she asked me years later why I had dropped Transfiguration, I just told her the subject didn't interest me."

Harry couldn't take it anymore. He started laughing. After all the trouble he had given Harry . . . and Neville, oh Neville. Even he had managed an A in Transfiguration. Harry couldn't help it. He had to laugh. And then a quick glance at his Professor made him stop. The man looked downright embarrassed.

"Hey. Look, I promise I won't tell anyone. And besides . . . so what you got a D on one stupid test. You were amazing in everything else. What gets me is McGonagall always seemed to get along really well with you at school. I would think having you fail out of her class would have made her not like you much."

Snape actually managed a small smile, "Yeah, well Minerva and I spent a lot of time together while I was in the class. She tried everything to help me and eventually just said there are some people who don't have the Transfiguration gene. She was always really nice about it though. She was always my favorite colleague."

Harry smiled and then, hearing the seductive hum once more, and happily being able to just listen without feeling entranced, he decided that there had been enough talk. It was time to get to work.

"Well Gillyweed it is, then. I'll see you in an hour," Harry said.

"Hold on a minute," Snape said, picking up his wand.

Harry held still while Snape said an incantation. It was a strange feeling not flinching away from this man as he was about to cast a spell on him. He didn't know when it had happened. But at some point over the past few days, Harry had decided he trusted Snape. Trusted him almost as much as he trusted Ron and Hermione. It wasn't even a conscious decision. It had just kind of happened.

"There," Snape said, stowing his wand back in his cloak. "I put a timer spell on you. In forty-five minutes you'll hear an alarm emanating from your body. That means it is time to return to the surface. Don't worry if you haven't found the Horcrux, we can keep trying from different points around the Loch until you do. You should get back with five minutes left on the Gillyweed. If you're not back in fifty-five minutes, I'm coming in after you."

Harry nodded and stuck the Gillyweed in his mouth. For the second time in his life, he felt the unpleasant slimy, rubbery tentacle like plant sliding down his throat. This time, instead of waiting for the feeling of suffocation, he submerged himself in the water and held his breath. A moment later, that was no longer necessary as he reached up and felt his gills. He smiled. Breathing underwater was an exhilarating feeling.

Now that he could breath he was able to focus more on his surroundings. And the low, musical hum that was emanating from underneath him to the east. He began to swim in that direction. The Loch was certainly different than the Lake. While the Hogwarts' Lake seemed to be filled with mostly magical creatures, all Harry could see in the Loch were many schools of Trout and a few eels here and there. This made him relax immensely. While he did make sure to bring his wand with him, he didn't really feel like battling any Grindylows today.

As he swam further and further to the East, the song of the Horcrux grew louder. He began swaying to the rhythm of the music, feeling the pulsing of the other Horcrux against his chest. It was such a beautiful song, smooth, sultry. The water around him felt like gentle hands, lovingly caressing his skin . . .

Harry slammed his eyes open with a jolt. He had practically dozed off. He didn't know for how long, but he had been completely unaware of his surroundings or even which way he was swimming. He could not let the power of the Horcrux overpower him.

_Come on, Harry. You've faced Voldemort how many times and survived? Are you really going to let just a piece of his soul do you in?_

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Harry continued to swim toward the music, this time keeping his mind busy thinking about other things so he was only half listening to the melody. He was very certain of one thing though. When he had dozed off, he had definitely still been swimming toward the Horcrux. The music was louder, and he could feel the locket pulsing ever more frantically. This piece of Voldemort's soul wanted to find the other piece.

Quite suddenly, the song of the Horcrux grew exponentially louder. It was as if the hum was coming from inside his own head. He shook his head to try to diminish the noise and realized it was actually coming from the sea floor directly beneath him.

He didn't see anything except for sand and rocks and knew that Voldemort would not have just left it where anyone could find it. It had to have been buried there, and perhaps protected by spells. Though the lake in itself seemed to be protection enough. Harry looked around for something to dig with when a deafening sound suddenly sounded right in his ears.

Once he had returned his breathing to normal, he realized this had to have been the alarm Snape had placed on him. He needed to return to the surface, but he was so close to the Horcrux. It was calling to him, begging him to retrieve it.

_You're so close, so very, very close. How can you possibly turn back now. Snape didn't think you could do it. That's the real reason he had second thoughts about sending you. He will never change. Even now, he's probably plotting how best to turn you over to Voldemort . . .  
_

Harry shook his head, realizing that while it sounded like his own voice, it wasn't coming from his head. It was coming from the sea floor. He was not going to fall victim to Voldemort's tricks.

He pulled out his wand and sent a beam of light straight up. The best thing to do would be to return to the surface, take some more Gillyweed and then come and retrieve the Horcrux. By following the beam of light he could make sure to swim straight up and then be able to swim straight back down, thus eliminating wasting any time trying to find the spot where the Horcrux was buried once more.

The light was quite easy to distinguish in the greenish glow of the Loch's water and Harry moved to swim toward the surface. Before he had gotten even a foot from the Loch's sandy floor, the necklace around his neck tightened.

It had been pulsing like crazy and now as Harry attempted to bring it further away from it's counterpart, it had begun to attack.

The gills in his neck insured that he could still breath, but the pain was nearly unendurable as the thing chain began to cut into his neck. Seeing red dots in front of his face, Harry began to believe he was losing consciousness. He soon realized it was actually his own blood he was seeing floating in front of his eyes. The chain was breaking skin. For every move he tried to make toward the surface, the chain tightened.

He screamed silently has he raked his own nails across the flesh of his neck, trying to slide his fingers underneath the chain, but it was useless.

The alarm Snape had spelled him with still continued to go off, and Harry realized with panic that very soon the chain wouldn't only be painfully ripping into his skin, but would also be choking him into unconsciousness. And then of course, he would drown.

He fought with everything he had to begin kicking toward the surface.

_You've failed Harry. You always knew you would. How could you, a boy of so little talent, a boy who has only succeeded in the past because of the help you've received from your betters, ever hope to defeat the Dark Lord. How did you ever think that your death would be one that mattered. This is the death you deserve. Drowning. Unable to save yourself now that you only have yourself to rely on . . .  
_

The alarm had stopped. Both the magical hum and the voice that was like Harry's own, but so unlike his own at the same time were silenced. Everything around him was quiet and he could feel the gills slowly disappearing.

He tried once again to swim to the surface and now found that the energy it required was too much. The water around him was now thick with red. He closed his eyes and hoped that the others would be able to finish the task he had been unable to finish. As he drifted off into unconsciousness he could feel the waters of the Loch caressing him once more . . . gentle hands against his skin. 

* * *

Neville was not surprised to find that Malfoy Manor reminded him a lot of the home he himself had grown up in. While he knew the Malfoys were dark wizards, he also knew that they were still aristocratic wizards and thus had certain appearances to keep up. He imagined they kept most of the darker items in their dungeons. He knew his two friends beside him would be surprised to find out that Neville also had dungeons in his home, though they had only been used as storage for several centuries.

It had been tough growing up with his grandmother. He was raised to be wizard nobility, just like every other son and daughter of the old lines, but he never really felt comfortable following all the rules and regulations. He was constantly under a microscope, being examined by not only his grandmother, but all of her prominent friends as well. And he never proved to be good enough.

At least not until he had fought beside Harry at the ministry. That summer when he had returned home he had seen a look of pride in Gran's eyes for the first time. He may not have acted very "aristocratically" but he had acted bravely, and that meant even more to Gran.

He knew once he succeeded in saving his mother, he would never be lacking in his grandmother's pride again.

"Take a seat," Mrs. Malfoy said, gesturing to a sofa in the sitting room off the front hall, "And tell me exactly what your plan is."

"Well," Neville started, cutting Ginny off. He glanced at her and tried to tell her with his eyes that it would be better if he did the talking. Ginny looked like she was going to protest, but eventually relented.

"The truth is we don't really have a plan. Our plan so far is find you, ask you where Draco and my mother are, go there and try to save them," Neville finished, feeling even more overwhelmed as he stated so clearly that they had no idea what they were going to do.

"I see. And why should I trust you, three children, to rescue my son when I could do it myself?" Narcissa said, surprisingly enough in a neutral, rather than cold voice.

"If you could do it yourself, why haven't you already? And why invite us in at all?" Neville asked.

Narcissa frowned ever so slightly and said, "It would be in both my and my son's best interest if no one found out that I had any part in his rescue. I was willing to risk it when I thought I had no other option, but then you showed me I may have another. I will not, however, send you to rescue him if I believe you will fail. I cannot risk them moving him."

"We won't fail. If you tell us where he is, we will rescue him. After we've rescued my mom," Neville said.

Narcissa shook her head and said, "No. You must rescue Draco first. He will be much easier to find as I know exactly where he is and I only have a guess as to where your mother is, and he will be much less heavily guarded. If my sister abducted your mother, she did so on the Dark Lord's orders. And if the Dark Lord wanted her, you can be sure she will not be easy to rescue."

"Well, then Mrs. Malfoy is correct. We must rescue Draco first because then he will be able to help us," Luna said suddenly, drawing the attention of the three others in the room, particularly Mrs. Malfoy's.

"I recognized the other two, but I don't believe I know who you are," Mrs. Malfoy said, looking at Luna carefully.

"I am Luna Lovegood, ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you," Luna said in her usual misty voice, making Neville have to snort back a laugh.

"Lovegood. Your father is the editor of the Quibbler," Mrs. Malfoy said, not bothering to hide her distaste.

"Yes, he is," Luna said, once again not noticing the tone people often took when referring to her father.

Mrs. Malfoy continued to scrutinize Luna carefully. Luna just smiled politely back at her.

"If Draco is in any condition to help, which I doubt he will be, I am certain he will not wish to help. You must get him back to me and then go back to retrieve your mother," Mrs. Malfoy said turning back to Neville.

Before he could respond Luna spoke up once more.

"Oh, I do believe you are mistaken. While Draco can be quite insufferable, and downright cruel at times, I do believe he has a good heart. The willowwispers never flee from him and they always flee from those who are truly evil. And while I'm sure he will not be in top form, he is quite strong and I'm certain he will be well enough to be of assistance. He's quite gifted. It would be nice to have him on our side."

Mrs. Malfoy stared at Luna for what felt like hours before turning to face Ginny and Neville, who despite themselves were trying very hard not to laugh.

Finally Neville broke the tension in the room and said, "It's best to just go with what she has to say. While I may not understand everything she says, I know she is very often correct in her judgements of people. I don't know if I agree that he will be, but if Draco is well enough and willing to help, we will have him help us rescue my mother. If he is not, we will bring him back here. I must tell you though that I will try very hard to convince him to help as breaking into the Dark Lord's hideout is not something I would really like to try twice."

Mrs. Malfoy sat back in her chair and looked Neville over once more. Neville felt completely numb and still had his hand in his pocket covering his wand. He had not told the others this, but he had no intention of leaving without the information Mrs. Malfoy had. He very much hoped that this civil conversation would work, but his mother meant more to him than anything or anyone else in the world, and he would do whatever it took to get the information out of the woman sitting across from him. It made him sick to his stomach to think about exactly what it was he was willing to do. He just really hoped it didn't come to that.

"Okay. Rescue my son. If you must, have him help you rescue your mother, but that will be his choice and his choice only," Mrs. Malfoy stood up and walked across the room to a bookcase. She pulled on one of the books and a hidden alcove appeared next to it. She removed a pendant from the alcove and it immediately disappeared into the wall once more.

She walked over to Neville and handed him the pendant.

"The moment you find my son, you must give him this. If he chooses, it will immediately return him home to me. Or, he may wait and help you and if he runs into any danger he can activate it then. Either way, you will only have to break into Propriété Noire once," Mrs. Malfoy said.

"Propriété Noire? Black Estate?" Ginny asked.

"Draco is being kept in your family home in France?" Luna asked at the same time.

Once more Mrs. Malfoy's gaze was trained on Luna.

"How could you possibly know that?"

"You just told us," Luna said looking even more confused than she usually did.

Mrs. Malfoy shook her head and said, "No. I mean, all I did was say the name. How did you know that it was my old family home?"

"I know a lot about the old families. That is the home you and your two sisters summered at. Because you had no brothers, it was passed onto the eldest daughter. Bellatrix Black. Since she is such a loyal Death Eater, she must have offered it as an international base. I really don't know why I never considered the possibility before now," Luna said, oblivious as always to the shocked faces surrounding her.

"It's best just to continue the conversation as if she never interrupted when you don't know what else to do," Ginny said helpfully.

Mrs. Malfoy gave her a sharp look before doing just that.

"Anyway. Yes the Estate is in Miquetot and I can give you a portkey that will take you there without upsetting the wards. If you are caught you must do all you can to destroy that piece of evidence as it will be a clear giveaway that I helped you. Once you get there, you will need to go to the dungeons. Draco will be in the last one down the third corridor on the left. That was always my favorite hiding spot, and now the Dark Lord is tainting it with my son's screams . . ."

Neville watched the woman in front of him closely as she was overcome with emotion. She loved her son as much as he loved his mother. He knew, no matter what, he must save the boy who he despised so much. If for nothing more than to help this woman.

"Of Draco's location, I am certain. Your mother's is more of a guess. As I said before, she must be very important to the Dark Lord which most likely means she is in the most heavily warded section of the Dungeons. That's corridor seven. Here . . ."

Mrs. Malfoy summoned a house elf who soon returned with a map of Propriété Noire. The four spent the next hour going over the map and discussing the best ways to remain hidden from detection. When it was time for them to set out, Neville felt much surer that they would succeed than he had before their visit. 

* * *

Voldemort was pleased.

He could not remember the last time he had felt this emotion. Ah yes, of course. After he had found out that his most faithful servant had killed Dumbledore. Of course, that turned out not to be the whole truth. Still, a dead nemesis was always something to bring a smile to an evil overlord's face.

But this . . . this was even better. And who would have imagined that it would have been Wormtail who would have helped bring about this wonderful turn of events.

Earlier that very day he had been discussing the problem of Alice Longbottom with Bella and he was growing quite frustrated. He had called Wormtail in to torture a bit to see if that would help him come up with any ideas, but it was actually Wormtail who had the idea.

He had been listening to the discussion, heard about how Alice was protected behind a glass wall in her mind and Wormtail had said, "Like a partition."

Of course. It was so obvious, the Dark Lord had been furious he had not figured it out himself. He had taken that anger out on Wormtail, but only briefly. After all he managed to prove himself useful once again. Despite the downfall he met because of Wormtail, the rat had turned out to be a wise recruit all in all.

But the partitioning. The reason he himself had not considered the option was because he had encountered partitions countless times in the past when interrogating witches and wizards. It was always a solid, impenetrable wall. Until the Dark Lord had a crack at it anyway. But of course, Alice's partition wouldn't be the same as any other witch or wizard. After all, she herself was partitioned behind that wall . . . and to be completely partitioned behind an impenetrable wall . . . why one would have to be dead.

And Alice was very much alive, if not fully able to access all of her brain and thus control her body.

Once the Dark Lord had realized Alice's mind was, in fact, partitioned, it had not taken him long to break that wall that separated him from the woman with so many answers.

And now here she stood, directly in front of him with not a trace of fear.

And honestly, that rather annoyed him.

"So you managed to do what dozens of trained Healers could never figure out . . . it's a shame you never thought to use your power for good. Though I imagine if you were the type of person to apply yourself to good, you would never have tortured that barrier into non-existence."

The Dark Lord could not remember a time he had heard someone speak of their own torture so glibly. He knew the process had been excruciating, and yet, here she acted as if it had merely been a tickle.

"You are an interesting woman Alice Longbottom. And remarkably calm considering the fact that I am one step closer to my goal . . . which puts your beloved son in that much more danger."

Still Alice stood tall, not showing an ounce of fear. She simply smiled.

"It's a shame that you still underestimate Lily. You have freed me from my prison, but don't think that one barrier is the only thing in your way. No, I believe the secret is safe, and will remain safe. Though I'm eternally grateful to you for waking me up again," the infuriating woman said with a small smile.

Voldemort felt his anger rising.

"There's still Petunia . . ."

At this the small smile turned into a wide grin.

"Oh that's the best part. Apparently when you ran off to go after her before . . . and I imagine you failed in retrieving her since you're back here again . . . it must have alerted her and the others to the fact that she could be traced, because guess what, I haven't the foggiest idea where she is right now. She must be shielded somehow. Really . . . it's quite sad for you, isn't it?"

"AAAgggghhhh!"

The Dark Lord screamed his frustration as he trained his wand on the insubordinate woman in front of him. Her delicious screams helped calm his nerves ever so slightly. She could be as confident and antagonizing as she wanted, but no one could endure the Cruciatus without screaming. No one.

He lifted the spell and was immediately angered once more as the woman cowering at his feet began to laugh.

"You can torture me all you want . . . it isn't going to help your predicament any," she said, laughing between gasps of breath.

"Well then," the Dark Lord said with a grim smile that finally shut the little Bitch up, "I guess I will have to do just that."

This time the screams were bone-chillingly sweet. 

* * *

Ron could feel the blood rushing to his head as he lay upside down in the lounge chair, Lily's diary held upside down in front of him. Petunia had given up trying to search for anything useful as she always got distracted by memories of her sister and Hermione had gone searching the whole of Grimmauld Place for any more useful books and so, Ron had been left the task of scouring the diary.

So far it had proved interesting, but useless.

He had found the section which seemed entirely devoted to notes on her work, which had interesting tidbits here and there, but which were extremely hard to follow. Her notes were connected by arrows and diagrams and stick figure pictures and he was beginning to get a headache from trying to decipher everything.

Of course, that could also have been caused by the blood rushing to his head.

He flipped back to the main part of the diary and began skimming again. Whenever the notes became too much he would flip back and read some of the entries where she talked about Harry. He liked being able to imagine his mate as a carefree baby: loved and protected.

_At least Harry doesn't seem to be affected by being cooped up in this house, but I am going positively mad. I know that the Fidelius was the best choice for our protection, but someone really ought to think about the fact that to be truly safe you have to stay in one place . . . indefinitely! It's absolute madness. I mean, why not just have the secret focused just on the one individual person or persons . . . . . .Wait a minute! That's brilliant. (4067)_

4067 . . . what could that possibly mean?

Ron looked down at the bottom of the page and saw the page number: 3572

Lily's work notes started in the late 3000s and went into the 4000s. Ron felt his heart leap into his chest as he quickly turned the pages until he found page 4067.

_The localized Fidelius Charm (will come up with a better name when perfected!)_

"Hermione! Petunia!" Ron called, hardly daring to believe that they may have just found the answer to their problem.

Ron skimmed the page as he waited for the two women to come back to the sitting room. He could barely make heads or tails of it, but he knew Hermione would be able to decipher it. If Lily had truly come up with this spell, he had no doubt that the most brilliant witch he had ever known would be able to bring it to fruition.

"What is it Ron?" Hermione asked, reaching the room first. Petunia was close behind her.

"I think I found a spell that we can use to shield Petunia," Ron said.

Ron did not hear the reactions of the two women to his amazing news. All he could focus on was the fact that he felt like he had just had a bucket of ice cold water dropped over his head. His stomach tied itself into knots and he felt like his heart had stopped beating altogether.

He looked up at Petunia and Hermione and saw that he was not alone in these sensations.

"Harry," Petunia whispered.

And Ron knew she was right. Harry was in danger. He didn't know how he knew, but that's what that feeling was.

Harry was dying . . .

"We have to go. We have to go now," Petunia said, frantic as she ran around the room gathering their things.

"But Petunia . . . you can't. Without the protection of the house . . ." Hermione started, though Ron could tell her heart wasn't in the lecture. He could see in her eyes that all she was thinking of was getting to Harry as soon as possible.

"Harry is dying. My nephew needs me. I don't give a shit about Voldemort right now. We are going to Harry, and we are going now!" Petunia said, leaving no room for argument.

Ron helped the two women gather up their belongings and in a matter of minutes, the three were standing on the stoop of Grimmauld Place apparating to Loch Ness. 

* * *

**A/N**: I'll try to have the next chapter up within a month. Can't guarantee it, but I'll try. And I'm going to sit down and map out the rest of the story soon, which should help with updates. When there's a plan, it's harder for writer's block to strike. :-)


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